Pandaria: Rise of the Sha
by CII
Summary: Neltharion the Earth-Warder, formally known as Deathwing, follows a mysterious being to the long lost ancient continent of Pandaria. While at the same time Garrosh is also intrigued by the continent, wanting to use its resources for world conquest. However, Pandaria is not as innocent looking as it appears. It holds a hidden and dark secret.
1. THE EARTH-WARDER AND THE THUNDER KING

_**THE EARTH-WARDER AND THE THUNDER KING**_

**WRITTEN BY LOREWALKER CHO**

Many, thousands of years ago, before the Last Great Pandaren Emperor, Pandaria was ruled by the Mogu. They were once the children of gods, as the tales say, which were not all that far from the truth. The Mogu were the children of the Titans. Carved from stone, these great beings were created to do the Titan's bidding under the guidance of Ra-Den, the Titanic Watcher. Though, through the centuries, the Mogu lost their ways. Either because of abandonment, or called to greater tasks, the Titans left the Mogu for the stars.

The Mogu became, confused, distraught, and bitter. The Curse of the Flesh then set in, and the once proud stone creatures who served "gods" were naught but a mere shadow of their former selves. They warred and bickered, feuded, clashed and Pandaria became wrought with negative emotion. Fear, doubt, violence, anger, hatred, despair, and pride finally broke the Mogu…save one.

Lei Shen, the Thunder King.

He found a way to not only band the warring clans of the Mogu together into a fearsome empire, but restore their immortality and took away the Curse of the Flesh. Still, lost in their ways, only to rekindle a fragment of who they were, they sought again to do the bidding of the Titans. But they did not completely grasp what that was. Lei Shen, who convinced the Mogu that he spoke for the Titans, told them they should once more create life as the Titans would.

They experimented in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to create such life. What misshapen things did these Mogu create! The Mogu were not ones who understood beauty or creativity. They only knew one thing, pure order and logic, as what they believed the Titans represented.

They saw the Mantid as a representation of chaos, and built the Serpent's Spine to separate themselves from them. To restore order itself, the Mogu enslaved the populace, the Pandaren, to carry on the menial tasks while they freed their minds for more enlightened purposes. To ensure that the Pandarens would not rise up, they forbade the usage of weapons. And so, the Thunder King ruled on, unyielding for centuries.

However, his actions did not go unnoticed, especially by a being far greater than he.

Over the palace within the Vale of Eternal Blossoms were the sounds of gigantic wings. The sky seemed to turn black as if the sun itself had been snatched away. On the ground, the rocks quaked and cracked. Lightning flashed and the thunder roared.

Lei Shen called out: "Who dares strike against the Thunder King with lightning and thunder? I am he who controls it!"

A voice replied, registering so deep the palace shook in fright.

"I dare, Thunder King!"

As Lei Shen gazed to the sky, he froze, captured in his own fear. Hovering above was a dragon the size of a mountain. A black dragon with a mane of purple crystals.

He was known as Neltharion, the Earth-Warder.

Neltharion was a being also created by the Titans for a specific task, to guard the world itself. He forged the rivers that would all flow to Pandaria, raised Pandaria's mountains, and carved Pandaria's coastlines. He maintained the vast continent of Kalimdor, to which Pandaria occupied the southernmost tip.

Neltharion had heard of the turmoil the Thunder King caused with his attempt to restore order. He felt the land poisoned by the fear and cries of the Pandaren slaves. He heard the land seethe with the rage and the hatred of the Mogu. And he touched the doubts of the hearts of every creature in Pandaria who remain enthralled by the Mogu. He knew exactly what would rise if Lei Shen continued on with his plans.

"What you believe, Lei Shen, is not the Titans' design!" the Earth-Warder bellowed. "This order would only create the chaos you wish to stamp out."

Lei Shen seemed to falter, but then stood tall and proud and defiant to the Earth-Warder's warning.

"The gods have not returned," he said. "The will of the Makers no longer matters. I am the Maker now, I do as I see fit! You have no power over me, dragon!"

The Earth-Warder was unmoved by Lei Shen's boast.

"I am not going to challenge you," said Neltharion, softly. "But warn you what this could lead to. Your actions are poisoning the land, twisting it, befouling it. I hear the sounds of my rivers as they weep with the tears of Pandaren slaves. I hear the cries of the winds, calling out in torment. I hear the ground wretch as you walk upon it. My Song, that which creates balance in the air, in the sea, and in the ground, now sings sourly. As the Aspect of the Earth, I must order you to cease this foolishness. Though my charge is not to protect the lives that live on the land, the voices and thoughts that flow from them can change it." He thrusted an accusing talon at Lei Shen and bellowed like a clap of thunder. "You hurt Pandaria! You hurt the land, the rivers, the coastlines, and the mountains because you hurt Pandaria's people! I will not see the land poisoned by ill thoughts!"

"I wield the power of the gods just as you!" Lei Shen said, standing tall and proud before the Earth-Warder. "Perhaps I wield it much better than you."

Lei Shen struck the Earth-Warder with a mighty bolt of lightning from his fingers. But the Earth-Warder remained, the bolt only fizzled upon his black scales. Neltharion stared upon him with eyes of disappointment.

"The Titan's will is one of order," said Neltharion, unfazed by the attack of the Thunder King. "The order you are creating will dissolve into chaos. It is only through working together can order be restored. But you enslave the Pandaren. You break their spirits and you make them afraid. And you squander the potential they represent. This shall be your downfall."

Lei Shen laughed, dismissing the Earth-Warder's warning again.

"They have no power, they have no strength," he said. "Their usefulness is only in their enslavement. They are not worthy to be considered an equal to us."

"Then you are a bigger fool than I thought," said Neltharion. "For you do not know what true strength, what true power is. True strength is not measured by how you force your will upon others, or how strong your muscles are. True power, can only be measured by the strength of the heart. That is what my father, Khaz'Goroth said to me when he breathed life into my body. True strength is found within, and not without."

The Pandaren slaves listened to the words of the Aspect, each one striking a chord inside them.

Lei Shen scoffed and laugh. As he turned to leave, the Dragon Aspect spoke again.

"If physical strength is how you judge the worthiness of those around you. Then, I shall show you my strength."

The Earth-Warder told Lei Shen to follow him to the Kun-Lai highlands. During the time of the Thunder King, Kun-Lai did not have the famous, gigantic, snow-capped mountains it was famous for.

As Lei Shen sat to watch the display of the Earth-Warder's strength, the Black Aspect dove into the ground. Deeper, and deeper he went until he came to the fiery core of the world itself. With a huff, a grunt, Neltharion pushed himself against the very land that made up Kun-Lai. The ground quaked violently, breaking and opening up. Lei Shen still stood defiant even while his fellow Mogu began to waver and fear.

Then, Kun-Lai itself begin to rise, higher and higher, higher into the clouds until it scrape the sky itself. Birthed by the strength of Neltharion, the tallest peak in all of Azeroth was formed, Mount Neverest. Neltharion once more rose from the ground as if he was rising out of water. Behind him, there were the mountains. Gigantic spires of rock and snow, a testament of the Earth-Warder's physical strength.

"Is this the strength you seek?" Neltharion asked.

Just as he turned to leave the Thunder King to contemplate the event he had witnessed, the Earth-Warder had one more warning.

"One day, these mountains I have created will be your tomb."

The Earth-Warder was also not far from the truth. When the Pandaren at last rose up against the Mogu, they were reminded of the Earth-Warder's words.

True strength is found in the heart. Lei Shen was then laid to rest inside a vast vault under Kun-Lai, resting at the foot of Mount Neverest, just as the Earth-Warder said.

After the fall of the Mogu, Pandaren created their own empire, one of peace and tranquility. They heeded the words of the Earth-Warder again, finding the meaning to what he said about poisoning the land with thoughts of fear, violence, hatred, doubt, anger, and despair. However, they forgot one important lesson, a lesson that the Earth-Warder knew all too well. And it was the lesson that the Mogu suffered the consequences for.

Pride.

Hubris.

Perhaps it is not too late for us to learn true humility, especially in seeking out the aid of others.


	2. Chapter 1

**章ー**

**CHAPTER 1**

Afternoon, though it appeared more like evening. The land was gray, grayer than he had ever seen it. He new this place, this long bleak scar gouged into the Redridge Mountains between the Blasted Lands and the Swamp of Sorrows. Gnarled, petrified trees reached out like cruel black talons, frozen in mid grasp. Jagged blacken cliffs gave the pass the look of a maw of a massive monster suspended in an eternal scream. The grim, chilly mists sent a shiver down his spine.

If he were in his true size, his entire body would fill the pass itself, from opening to opening. Over a thousand feet of treacherous ground and cursed haunts were only ghosts and ghouls were the only residents left.

This was Deadwind Pass.

Deadwind Pass was the place the Last Guardian of Tirisfal, the Mad Prophet Medivh was going to build the Black Portal. Here, the first invasion of the Old Horde was planned. Though for whatever reason, Medivh decided against building the Portal here was beyond even the dragons. Though it was stated that Medivh had gone, disappeared after the Horde and Alliance banned together in the latter half of the Third War to defeat the Burning Legion, his presence could still be felt.

Neltharion thumped the ground with a paw and listened to its song echoing back. There were two melodies playing within the bedrock, one of the sickly earth beneath his feet and another of magic. Though Neltharion could not see the leylines that streaked across Azeroth, he could hear the echo of the presence through the planet. Here, above all else, save perhaps the Nexus, is where he could hear the song of magic louder. The song coalesced to one point, a ringing note blaring from the rock like a klaxon. The point to which he heard the note was Karazhan itself.

Neltharion drew closer and the sound became louder until he at last beheld the ivory tower of the Mad Prophet himself. Above, he heard the squawk of a raven. The black bird circled the tower, a watchful guardian to the secrets that lay ahead. As the Earth Warder came closer to the dusty doors, he heard the raven squawk again. The raven dove down and then landed in a furry of feathers upon one of his great, spiky horns.

"What the hell…" Neltharion said, though it sounded more like a startled hiss. He shook his head, hoping that the bird would lose its balance and fly off. Sadly, it did neither. It flapped its wings but its claws still clung tightly to the craggily surface of his horn.

"Off," Neltharion said as he shook his head once more. "Off! Get off! Bad bird!"

But the bird seemed un-wavered by his attempts to shake him free. The raven, either as a show of how it was not the least bit afraid of the Great Black, or perhaps because it had an itch, extended a wing slightly and began to preen itself. Then, it started pawing the horn, scratching its clawed foot. It settled, more than contented to stay with the Earth-Warder.

"Well, I suppose deep down, I've always wanted a pet bird," he said. "Though I was hoping for a parrot."

The raven crawled upon his eye ridge and then shoved its beak right into his eye. Neltharion yelped in more surprise by the act rather than pain, dipping his head down and covering it with a paw. The dragon growled and snorted at last opening the slightly, dimly orange glowing eye. He blinked away a tear and stared at the bird annoyingly.

"One more peck from you and you're raven pie," Neltharion said with a low snarl.

The bird backed off, perching itself once more upon his horn. Once he felt that his unwanted companion was settled, Neltharion returned his attention to the dusty old doors leading into Karazhan.

Something drew the Aspect here, though he could not say what it was. He recalled prior to their rather violent parting, and before Theramore was destroyed, that Calia had mentioned she found a black whelp. The Red Dragons of the Vermilion Redoubt had found a black dragon egg, so they claimed when Neltharion prodded them. He could tell they were lying, though he had not the time to get the real truth out of them. The egg had hatched and a black whelp who called himself the Black Prince, had amassed a small following. He hired a rogue, the rogue the Red Dragonflight hired, to find various black dragons in hiding and kill them. One, he discovered, was Nalice, his old Wyrmrest Ambassador. She was hiding in Karazhan, trying to find something she could use in Medivh's old library.

Slowly, he pushed open the dusty glass doors of the old tower and went inside. The interior looked as bad as the exterior. Cobwebs lined the corners of the ceiling and walls, dust collected in piles after piles, dried leaves scattered across the black and white tiled floor. He could hear the haunting whispers of specters who once roamed the Ivory Tower. Neltharion sniffed the air. It was stale. Nothing had moved around in this old place in a long time. Though he smelled a small familiar scent reaching out from the corridor just at the other end of the Gate House.

He started to follow the scene, being drawn even further inside until he heard the raven squawk. Neltharion looked up as it flew off his horn and landed upon one of the rickety chandeliers. A solitary, partially melted white candle toppled to the floor, breaking in two.

"Neltharion!"

The Black Dragon felt his heart leap into his chest upon the voice calling his name.

"Neltharion!"

The voice had a raspy sound to it, though he could not mistake it. The Prophet Velen was calling for him. He could hear the voice from across the ocean itself, thousands of miles away from here. The raven squawked again, hopping off the chandelier and onto a dusty table. It beckoned Neltharion to continue on through Karazhan.

"Neltharion!"

The voice of Velen however did not. Neltharion rumbled with frustration, the floor vibrating beneath his paws. The raven squawked again.

"I…I can't," he said. "I…have to go."

With a heavy heart, the dragon left the Gate House, slowly descending the cobblestone stairs. The raven flew out of the door to land upon an oak tree branch. It squawked again. Neltharion only replied with a wag of his head.

"I'll continue this later," he said as he began to bound up the tall cliffs. With each leap, his wings opened up to help with his balance. He climbed his way up to the very top peak looking over Deadwind Pass and then took one last glance at it. As he rounded the peak, the gray rocks turned to rust. Neltharion looked to the west over the Blasted Lands. He hopped down, bounding from rock face to rock face until he cleared the ridge. Upon the open expanse of the rusted Blasted Lands, Neltharion allowed with relief, his body to return to its true size. Though instead of roaring triumphantly upon reaching his true size, the Black Aspect just softly sighed. He took a good look at his girth, noting just how much larger he became. He reached over a thousand and three hundred feet in length and his wings were over twice the width.

Over the coming weeks spending under the ocean, in the trenched, his rest allowed his body to catch up with the swelling caused by his emotional outburst. He filled out, his proportions evening with each growth. He worried though on when the next attack would come. The irony, the thing that seemed to make him stronger was the thing that cripples him. His horns still felt heavy, his neck straining to keep his head level. Each step into the rusty plain left a crater in its wake. The sweltering wind rose up and blew a few locks of his black and white striped beard into his mouth and nostrils. Neltharion sputtered and spat, batting the tangled locks away.

Without Calia there to help him keep his beard neat with grooming and braiding, the Aspect let it go wild. She was not there when he rose from the ocean, she was not there when he walked upon the beach back at Azuremyst Isle. So, he left to go on his search. He did what she asked, he left her alone and walked alone to search for any signs of the flight he left behind.

Neltharion took in a deep breath and spread his titanic wings. He kicked off gaining speed and altitude with each downbeat of his wings. They still felt clumsy to him, alien, due to their ever reaching size. So, he took it easy, flying a little over half his top speed, letting the hot air of the desert guide him west with each glide. He headed back towards Azuremyst Isle, bounding up above the clouds to conceal his path. He flew higher and higher until the rim of the world itself fell away and at last he could see the spherical shape of the planet. Neltharion pierced through the heavier troposphere layer into the much thinner stratosphere like a whale leaping out of the water.

No dragon could ever fly this high, the low pressure would rupture their ears and the shallow air made it difficult to breathe. But Neltharion could fly this high. He could hold his breath, the pressure did not bother his ears, and his wings were large enough to catch the thin air. Below, the world looked like it was encased in a hazy shield. He bounded through the great current of wind that swept across the planet, a vast river of air high above that brought the seasons. The sky above was a deeper blue, as deep blue as the ocean. His keen eyes could even see the lights of stars high above piercing through despite it being day. As he flapped, the tips of his wings sliced the air, forming contrails of mists.

High above, at last Neltharion the ceiling of the planet, the barrier he maintained the dangerous rays of the sun, the cosmic energy of the stars, and the waves of the Twisting Nether from harming the fragile world below. And he exhaled. Despite the great speed he gained from being so high, there was barely any sound. The world below looked frozen. He could no longer see the signs of civilization, only the world itself. Below him he could see the vastness of the Great Sea. Towards the south he saw the swirling cloudy mass of the Maelstrom and the stream of orange rays reaching out to the heavens.

His eyes looked beyond the Maelstrom. He took note of a curious sight, a dark mass in the southern horizon. This mass was new to him. Neltharion paused, correcting his flight path. He swirled the air around him, hovering now just at the edge of the Maelstrom. The black mass to the south was land. It seemed too large to be an island. It was another continent.

_To the south…_he thought. _I looked to the south._

His baffled expression shifted as he turned away, looking towards the northwest. Neltharion streaked back towards Azuremyst Isle. He folded his wings close to his sides as he dove into an arcing descent, swiftly gaining speed. He opened the leading edge digits of his wings controlling his descent. The closer he came to the island chain, the lower he dropped until he splashed down into the troposphere in a thunder clap. The air split all around his body, radiating out as ripples in a pond. The dragon extended his wings fully, chasing the sun's trek west. Clouds parted in the wave. He taxied across the water, the waves sprayed about him, sliced by the wind of his wings.

Before him was the isle. Neltharion dove the water just off shore of the island, careful not to create a massive wave to disturb the sleepy isle. Now, in his smaller form, Neltharion stepped upon the sandy beach. The dragon shook his head, slinging his wet beard around until it stuck in a twist around his thick neck. He shook a few strands loosened and he began his trot back towards the _Exodar_, the dimensional ship of the Draenei. He rounded the grassy hill and into the park that surrounded the ship. Already, the damage he caused was repaired, the power was back on in the ship, flowing through the conduits and wires and lighting the park with their luminaries. Outside, Neltharion found the Prophet Velen and Vindicator Maraad outside.

The Prophet tapped his staff to the ground and once more shouted: "Neltharion!"

Neltharion sniffed and slowly walked towards them.

"Now where the hell did you learn to do that, Velen?" he asked.

The Prophet turned, a smile of relief spreading across his face when he saw the dragon approach him.

"I have been paying attention to my shamans, Earth Warder," Velen replied. "And my astute learning has not failed me."

"I'll say," said Neltharion. "I…could hear you all the way…" he paused, trying to decide where or not he should tell Velen where he had been the whole day. "All the way in the trench."

"Now, what did I tell you about holding water?"

Neltharion dipped his head and growled hesitantly.

"I am not going to tell you were you should and should not go, Aspect," said Velen, placing a kind hand upon the dragon's shoulder. "I am just concerned for your wellbeing. Given the condition you were in when I saw you last, can you blame me? You were in a lot of pain. I was worried if you were safe, if you were in a position where you might need help. I consider you a friend, it would not be proper if I was not concerned if you would ever return safe and sound."

"I…needed to fly," said Neltharion. "My wings…I needed to get used to them again."

"And how did your flight fair?"

"I had some…trouble flying around in the…" Neltharion broke off, raising his paw. "In the thick…part of the atmosphere. I had to…well…you see the planet has many layers of air…and…"

"Flying with your new wings in the troposphere was more difficult than the stratosphere, correct?" Velen asked. "The thinner air made it easier for you to maneuver with them."

Neltharion lifted a paw: "How did you know that?"

Vindicator Maraad smiled and pointed back to the _Exodar_: "Spaceship."

"It is alright, my friend," said Velen. "You can use all those fancy words around us. We will not be lost."

The Aspect sighed and bobbed his head.

"I see you got the generator working again," he said. "I am still very sorry for…"

"It was an accident, Neltharion," said Velen. "Nothing more. No one was harmed."

"Your splits have closed," said Maraad.

"Thank goodness," said Neltharion. "How did you know about the…um…"

"Radiation poisoning coming from your open ruptures?" Velen asked. "Well, once more, we have to know about those things because…"

"Spaceship," said Maraad.

"Spaceship," said Neltharion.

"Yes, that is one of the reasons," said Velen. "We have to help O'ros to maintain the ship. So it was imperative for us to understand what radioactive contamination was."

"Varian could not spare anyone to assist in repairing your plates," said Maraad. "Considering the…damage the tsunami caused."

Neltharion sighed heavily and lowered to his belly, laying his head upon his paws. He snorted a cloud of ash from his nostrils.

"You do know about that, do you not?" Velen asked.

"Yes," he replied in a long, drawn out rumble. "I know. Another accident." Neltharion lifted his head. "But this time people were hurt, Velen. This powers I have, they aren't a blessing, they're a curse. I…am a danger!"

"They are controlled by your emotions," said Velen. "To control them, you must be in control of yourself. You have to control your emotions."

"Control my emotions," he said. "I just lost my wife, I lost the child we were going to have. I am in constant fear for my flight's safety."

"And the visions?"

"I had a few of them."

"Monsters made of smoke," Velen asked. "The ones who beckon you to go south. These visions have a meaning behind them. You should listen to them."

Neltharion glanced away, laying his head back down. He loosened a sorrowful moan. Velen knelt down.

"I listen to my visions," he said. "After all, they brought me to this wonderful world you protect. So, you see, they are not all evil. When one door closes, another one opens."

Neltharion turned south, lines of worry etched into his brow.

"I know what will clear your mind," said Velen. "We have a warm mineral spring not far from the _Exodar._ I have found bathing in and breathing in the steam helps when nothing else seems clear. Besides, it will wash the seawater from your scales."

"I suppose I could use a bath," said Neltharion.

§§§

The steam worked its way into his nostrils, helping to clear his head. He took the brush into one paw and began to scrub away the grime from the scales of his forearm. Neltharion leaned back and took a deep, calming breath. He leaned against the edge of the heated, mineral spring, smiling as he began to relax. The spring was powered by the metamorphic rock underneath, heating up as the layer squashed due to the weight of the top portions of the crust. There were no volcanoes or any other geological activity on the islands, despite being close to an oceanic trench. The volcanoes in question were at the trench itself, mud volcanoes that helped to lubricate the plates, which explained the lack of earthquakes in the region. It also explained why these islands were so well protected even during the Cataclysm.

It took Deathwing breaking half the planet to cause even moderate damage to the island chain, including the _Exodar_, and Neltharion being on the island itself to cause visible damage to the park. Neltharion joked to himself he would have to kick the plate the islands sit upon itself to cause anything close to what everyone else felt around the planet during the Cataclysm.

He ran his talons through his beard, slowly pulling free the knots and tangles that bound it. The dragon glanced around, searching for a sign of any unwanted onlookers watching him bathe. Neltharion bobbed towards the center and then spread his wings slightly. He dipped his head down and began shaking his entire body, sending the water everywhere.

He flapped his wings and splashed the water all over him, getting the dirt and grime off his scales. He lifted his head up and shook it, slinging sparkling ribbons off his great horns. He dipped his head down again for another splash. From a distance, Neltharion would look more like a bird splashing in a bird bath. The dragon dove under, flopping sideways with a smile. His tail lifted out and crashed back down again as he began to happily submerge into the warm, refreshing spring.

Something flew over his head and then landed upon one of the rocks framing the spring. Neltharion tilted his head to find a raven scraping at the rocks. The bird hopped closer to him, fanning its tail and tiling its head back at him. It trilled. Neltharion slowly shook his head. It hopped closer. Neltharion moved away. The bird followed. The dragon hopped out of the spring and then spread his wings, giving them a good flap to sling the water from them. He shook the water from his scales. Neltharion turned around to find the raven hopping closer. He backed away, but the bird followed.

"No," he said. "You can't be. You're not that…"

The raven squawked.

"Go away," said Neltharion.

The bird ruffled its shaggy feathers and then shook its body. Once it was done with that task, it croaked at Neltharion again.

"What a riveting rebuttal," said Neltharion. "Stay there, and I am going inside…over there…_you_ do not follow me."

He slowly backed away, one foot after another, his eyes never leaving the big black bird in front of him.

"Stay…" he said with a low, commanding tone. "Stay…stay…"

The bird hopped closer.

"No, stay there," said Neltharion. "Stay…stay…"

As he turned around, stepping ever so softly away, the dragon paused to find Velen.

"Did you enjoy your bath?" he asked.

"Yes," said Neltharion. "I feel much better. Thank you."

"Is there something wrong?"

Neltharion craned his head behind his shoulder to find the raven had vanished.

"No," he replied. "It's nothing." He slowly shook his head, his shoulders slump, his wings limp. "Nothing at all."

As Velen escorted Neltharion back to the _Exodar_.

"While you were resting under the ocean, a message from Stormwind City came," the Prophet began. "I left it in your room."

"What was it about?"

"I respect my guests' privacy," he replied. "So, I did not open it. But it was very important. It bore the Seal of the King."

They entered through the lower entrance, making their way up through the levels of the ship. Neltharion passed many Draenei who dipped their heads in greeting. Though he could feel their hearts. They seemed pensive, troubled, worried. The whole ship had an air of gloom about them as he saw many Draenei began to be preparing for something. Maraad then dipped his head.

"Forgive me, Holy Prophet, Earth-Warder," he said. "I must resume my duties."

"Of course, old friend," said Velen, gracefully waving a dismissive hand.

Maraad dashed off to an ascending chamber up a glowing, pink ramp. Neltharion turned back to the Prophet, his confusion only growing. He could see through Velen's calm expression. It was a mask to hide the deep stress that was building inside of him.

"What happened?" Neltharion asked.

"You were not the only one Stormwind sent a message to," Velen began. "I am sending some of my best shamans and paladins to Varian's aid." He pressed his lips tightly together, gripping his staff with a trembling hand. "Anduin…he is missing."

"Anduin," said Neltharion. His brow raised. "What happened to him?"

"Lost at sea," Velen replied. "Anduin was on a ship heading here to see me. I thought perhaps he could also help you given how well you and he bonded during your last visit. As we were going to repair the plates and mount them to your back…I knew Anduin would be able to aid in healing you. And I wanted to surround you with friends. Perhaps learning how to not just heal humanoids would help broaden Anduin's abilities." He hefted a heavy, baleful sigh. "But his ship was lost at sea in a storm. Not before they were ambushed by the Horde. Varian does not care if the Horde attacked the ship or not, the only thing he cares about is the safe return of his son."

Neltharion rumbled: "I should…help…find him. I could help."

"I have no doubts that you could," said Velen. "And I am sure Varian would be grateful, but you still need repair. I said I would repair you once the danger had passed. Varian has great confidence that Anduin will be found even without your help."

"Where was Anduin's ship last known location?"

"South of the Maelstrom," Velen said. "That was when they were caught in the squall."

"South?" Neltharion asked. "That's not the proper route to Azuremyst Isle from Stormwind."

"That is where the Horde fleet were driving the ship towards," said Velen. "That was why they sailed off course."

"South," said Neltharion. "My visions point south, Anduin's ship is lost to the south. The Horde is in the south."

"Then, when you have been repaired," said Velen. "And rested, you too should travel south. Tell me, have you figured out whether or not there is a land beyond the Maelstrom?"

"Yes," Neltharion replied. "There is. It's…it's the southern tip of what used to be Old Kalimdor, the supercontinent that was destroyed by the Sundering."

"Does this continent have a name?"

"I…don't know," he said. Neltharion's brow furrowed and he grimaced painfully as if the strain of the memory was too much for him to process. "I don't remember. All I know is, it wasn't there before. I do remember that Kalimdor had a southern tip, but I thought it was destroyed by the Sundering and only three continents survived. Of course, I couldn't sense it, not while Deathwing controlled me for ten thousand years. It just appeared. I can feel it. Something was blocking my sight, but it's gone now."

Neltharion turned every so slightly away from Velen just as the Prophet began to speak. His voice became distant, only a soft echo in Neltharion's ears. He heard the clear sound of a croaking caw. Just behind the Prophet, the dragon saw the raven from Karazhan again. The raven squawked and clacked. As the raven sounded, Neltharion thought he heard the bird speak a single word. _South._

"Neltharion?" Velen asked, calling the dragon's attention.

The Aspect blinked his eyes, snapping out of his own thoughts and looked for the raven again. It was gone.

"Neltharion?" Velen said. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing," said Neltharion in a quick reply. His spiny neck scales raised, fluffing up like the feathers of a bird.

"That water is difficult to hold, is it not?"

Neltharion turned away, snorting a puff of black smoke: "Damn it…"

"You do not have to tell me if you do not want to," said Velen, reaching up to smooth out Neltharion's ruffled scales. He combed with the grain and the dragon let loose a soft, calming thrum. "I just want to help."

"I much rather not talk about it, right now," said Neltharion.

"And that is all you need to say," said Velen.

He led Neltharion to the quarters he made out for the dragon prior to the incident in the park. The mess Neltharion had made was cleaned up, new pillows and covers were set out for him. On a iridescent purple table was a tan colored envelope with the gold lion of Stormwind set in a blue shield. Neltharion looked upon the envelope, fearful of its message, fearful of the unknown.

"I shall leave you to rest," said Velen. "When we have reforged the plates we found, I will summon you."

"Thank you," said Neltharion, at last breaking his eyes away from the envelope. "Thank you, Velen, for your hospitality."

Velen bowed and the door slid shut. Neltharion took in a deep breath, reaching for the envelope. Taking great care, he broke the seal and pulled the message out. Slowly, he unfolded the message and scanned its contents. His lipped trembled, his heart lurched, his eyes began to ache as he read the message…a message that tore at his soul.

* * *

_To the Esteemed Lord Daval Prestor, Former King and Sovereign Ruler of Alterac:_

_This letter is to inform you of the annulment of the marriage between yourself and Princess Calia Menethil of Lordaeron. As of this date, the 3rd of September, 622K.C. the marriage agreement made under the ruling of King Terenas of Lordaeron is voided, by the order of the High King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind. The petitioner of this annulment has grounds for its abolishment due to wrongful pretense of Lord Daval Prestor. The spouse had knowingly manipulated this false marriage into existence for sinister purposes to undermine the Alliance of Lordaeron during the Second War, as the Princess had provided as a witness, and that Lord Daval Prestor betrayed and defiled the Princess's body upon their bedding night. It is in the best interest of the former Princess of Lordaeron that you both must now go your separate ways._

_May the Holy Light provide you, Lord Daval Prestor, with clarity for your hideous actions against the Princess. And may you at last see the errors of your ways._

_Go in the grace and virtues of the Light,_

_Varian Wrynn, High King of Stormwind_

* * *

Neltharion let the letter fall from his paws. He stood there, his body frozen in his disbelief. Their marriage was not only over, it never existed. This was the final dagger Calia drove into his heart.

"Calia…" he said. "Why? What did I do to deserve this?"

The betrayal was enough to sicken him. The letter, blaming him for the actions of Deathwing…the crimes he had committed and the ravishing of the one who he thought of as a partner, a lover, a friend…all for the sake to make even the fraction of companionship that they shared be cast off into oblivion. One little paper and that was all it took to rip his already weakened heart out. Neltharion could not bear to look upon the vanilla colored parchment. The letter wanted him to see the errors of his ways, but there were no errors he made. Not him, not personally. That was Deathwing's fault. This letter should have gone to him instead.

The Aspect tensed up, feeling his heart about to break with anguish.

Neltharion could feel a wash of emotion, spider-webbing out through every vein, every tendon like electricity. Hatred, despair, violence, doubt, rage, and fear. They all collided together until Neltharion could not differentiate between them.

As he tensed, he felt a stretch from the skin under his scales. A rip appeared on his shoulder as the lava oozed forth, trickling down his scales.

"No," he whispered as he folded upon himself, wrapping his wings tightly around his body. Each of the digits of his wings gripped him, their knuckles pale against the black leathery skin. "Not now. Please, not now."

He could feel his chest expanding, pressing against his forelegs.

"No," he said. "Don't do this. Control…control it…"

He heard the sound of a crack outside the window and he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble.

"Calm down," Neltharion whispered to himself. "Please. Don't…don't…"

He leaned back upon his hind legs, slumping over into a stoop as his forelegs kept their tight grip upon his chest. Another rupture split across his thigh as the swelling muscles flexed. Neltharion commanded his defiant body to obey, moving it closer to the personal wash room in his quarters. He could barely push his expanding body through the door, reaching out for the spicket knobs. He sucked in his stomach and pushed himself through, bending the door frame with each push.

His outstretched paw pulled upon the knob and the water began to fill the shallow tub. He reached for drain and lifted the latch to close it. Neltharion pulled himself away from the wash room and crashing to his back. He winced, another spasm trembling his side muscles. The heat began to build inside of him, the air began to shimmer around him. Neltharion lifted his paws, calling the water in the tub towards him.

"Cool…" he whispered. "Cool…thoughts. Cool…cold…"

The dragon winced, a sharp tinge splitting the scales upon his forearms. Scalding steam erupted from the wound. Neltharion raised his paws and commanded the building wave of water to wash over him. The water swirled around him, sealing him inside. With one stiff gesture of his paws, the water solidified into ice. Inside, the Aspect felt the cold ice working its way into his pulsating form, soothing him. Neltharion closed his eyes.

The water kept flowing from the tub.

_What did I do wrong, Calia? _he thought, his mind coming to the letter still lying on the moist floor. _What did I do wrong? Where did we go wrong? Perhaps we…should have parted after Uldum._

The cold would stabilize him, the cold would sooth him. He could feel the swelling beginning to subside as he fought against his own raging heat to keep the ice solid.

The sun passed overhead, slowly beginning to set, turning the ice violet. Neltharion opened his eyes, seeing through the blurry reflections in the ice the door opening from the wall. A figure stepped through, looking nothing more than a white blob, though Neltharion could sense who it was. Velen had come inside to check up on him. He saw the blob that was Velen kneel down to pick up the letter from Stormwind off the floor.

The dragon exhaled, bubbles forming from his nostrils. Neltharion moved as the ice loosened around him. As he moved, the ice melted, falling to the floor as water.

"I'll…clean it up," said Neltharion. The water boiled away into steam, flowing out the window. The floor was now completely dry.

"I see this letter was not good news from Varian."

"When one door closes, another door slams shut and locks," said Neltharion. He dipped his head. "Not before it nearly pinched my tail off. Oh, and the boot slammed in my face. She…she…I…I don't understand…"

"I said that your world was too large for her and her world was too small for you," said Velen. "This is the price we pay to be what we are to have so many people counting on us. You have the world, but all she wanted was a small piece."

"A grain of sand instead of a beach," said Neltharion. "It's the principle of the thing. She told me my power fails for those who need it the most. I tried to tell her I am not some weapon she could just fire upon her enemies. I can't just go around smiting those she deems a threat." He scoffed, sneering in disgust. "Thoughts like that are what got me into trouble in the first place. It's what created Deathwing. I began to see that the people who lived on this planet as enemies. I saw them as obstacles, rising up against me. And I drowned myself into those thoughts until their blacken poison bubbled into that monstrosity that broke the world, enslaved my sister, and…broke the heart of my beloved Sintharia. Ripped the trust of my brother and best friend." His breath shivered, the rusty throat frill trembled. "It was those thoughts that pushed everyone away. I warned her. But Calia didn't listen. I thought she…understood. I…don't want to be alone…but being this…_thing_ is a curse!" He tensed up. "I started…swelling again. That's why I froze myself. I was hoping the cold would…stop it. I'm a danger, Velen. I feel you are the last friend I have right now and…I don't want you to be hurt by…this…body of mine…" Neltharion straightened his shoulders, his paws digging deep into the metallic floor, scraping gashes into the surface. His voice became a whisper again. "I should go. I…thank you for helping me. But…I should go."

"If that is what you want," said Velen. "Please remember you are welcomed to come back if you need to. But I had hoped before you left that you would allow my blacksmiths to repair the plates. I do not wish to send you away half…dressed as it were."

"Tell them to hurry," he said. "I don't wish to stay here one more night. Not when something could happen…another accident…one that would…hurt your people. I couldn't live with myself if…that were to happen."

"Come with me."

As the night encroached, the blacksmiths were hard at work. Luminaries from the park lit the field. Hammers struck the elementium spikes, driving them into the Black Aspect's spine. Velen himself was hard at work, calling upon the grace of the Light to sooth away the pain. Plates were locked in place along the rips, holding them together. Rivets and bracers splint the fissures, binding them and the heat sealed deep within. Shamans worked their spells, the power of cooling water helped to harden the viscus lava. Scales swiftly grew over many of the smaller rips, beckoned by Velen's hand. Water swiftly quenched the heated plates as their dull fire dimmed.

Released from his binds, Neltharion stretched his wings. He curled his neck to peer upon the reworked plates. The smiths left engravings of their handiwork within the elementium. The plates were adorned with delicate swirling engravings and ancient runes of the Eradar followed the lines like dancing partners.

"These are symbols of good luck among my people," Velen said. "They represent the last vestiges of the culture we left behind. That is why we have them often carved into hammers of Vindicators and warriors. They remind us why we chose this life instead of the absolution of the Burning Legion. And they remind us of where we come from…and why we should cherish it. Each character tells its own story. It is my way of saying you are not alone in your struggles, Neltharion."

Neltharion arched his his neck, looking stately against the silvery shine of the White Lady.

"My blessing upon you will seem humble compared to those which have been bestowed upon the others: the managing of time, of life, of dreams and magic," he said, reciting the words once spoke to him upon his awakening. "I offer you the earth. The soil, the ground, the deep places. But know that the earth is the basis of all things. It is where we are rooted. Where you must come from, if you are to go to. Here is whence true strength comes. From deep places…within the world, and within oneself."

He could sense Velen contemplating upon the words, meditating on each meaning.

"I am afraid I have never heard that…passage spoken," said Velen. "Where did you learn it?"

"They were the words spoken to me by Khaz'Goroth," Neltharion replied. "When you said that you remind yourselves where you come from…who you were before Sargeras invaded your world, those thoughts reminded me what my father told me when he…granted me these powers. When he…made me…why he made me. Calia called me 'Dirt-Warder.' Even after she heard those words spoken to her…she still called me 'Dirt-Warder'. To her, all I protect is dirt. Who cares about the dirt? That is what she said to me."

"I care about the dirt," said Velen. "The dirt from my home. You never know how much you would regret losing something so…precious, until it is gone. I longed to see even a small rock from Argus. True strength is measured with the heart. That is what it means."

"Now, I feel my heart is not as strong as it used to be," said Neltharion. "I suppose it's why despite my physical strength…no matter how strong I am on the outside…I am weak on the inside. I said that Calia was my strength. Now that I lost her, I feel I have no more strength."

He slowly and carefully stepped away, though his heavy footfalls still brought a shudder to the earth. At last when Neltharion had gained enough distance, he turned back around to dip his head in parting.

"Thank you, Prophet," he said. "I…am in your debt."

"You owe me nothing," said Velen. "This is what I do. This is who I am. I bring help to those who need it, no matter how great or how small. Azuremyst is always welcomed to have you here. _Dioniss aca, _Earth-Warder."

Neltharion spread his wings and took off into the cool, cloudless night sky. He banked into a turn, his flight taking him back east. There was unfinished business in the east. Karazhan. That raven who was trying to tell him something. The land to the south. The Black Prince. Neltharion set his mind to those riddles. His heart, on the other hand, still felt lost. Lost without Calia. Conflict raged on inside of him, one of logic, the other of emotion.

As the lights from Azuremyst Isle faded over the bend of the horizon, Neltharion could feel the the disbarring loneliness worm its way into his heart like maggots in rotting flesh.

And Calia was no longer there to banish his woes.


	3. Chapter 2

**章二**

**Chapter 2**

He decided to travel the route least traveled.

Because no one traveled to the Veiled-Forbidding Sea. It was uncharted. All trade routes focused upon the Great Sea. But here, no one would see him fly to the Eastern Kingdoms. There was nothing but ocean that separated him from Karazhan. At least for the path he was taking.

Neltharion chased the sun across the ocean, following its path as it began to set in the turning west. The band of purple tailed him from behind, inching closer to cover him as the minutes ticked away. The band separated the day from the night.

He followed the curve of the globe.

Neltharion's mind mulled over what Velen meant. The Dirt that Velen longed to see again, that he would do anything for it. Though Neltharion could not help but to feel lost, even with those comforting words. Though, he was grateful that at least one person understood in one way the duties of the Earth-Warder. Although, he felt that the guidelines of those duties were no longer so clearly marked for him. Does he only protect the world, can he extend that protection to include the mortals like Calia wanted?

Most importantly, if Neltharion said yes, would that win Calia back?

It pained him so that he was still very much attached to her even if she reviled it. He loved her with all his heart and she ripped that heart out and crushed it.

There were so many questions that itched inside of his head, begging to be answered. Karazhan, its origins were a mystery, even for Neltharion. It was built by something, or someone, and it housed the most powerful mage that ever lived. It held secrets within its walls that not even the dragons knew about. That gave Nalice the reason she needed to invade it's halls.

There was something else it held as well, answers that the Aspect sought. There were answers that Neltharion needed, answers that he did not trust even his own siblings to give him. He could not trust himself to ask them either for he feared what they would do to him. Would they not heed him like they did not before when Deathwing took over his mind? Would they dismiss it? Or, would it be far worse. Would the other Aspects overcompensate for him, now that they know what would happen if he fell into madness again. Would they capture him, chain him, keep him out of harms way? So long as Neltharion lived, Azeroth lives. They could not destroy him, but they could keep him bound so that he would not harm either innocents or himself. That was reason enough for Neltharion not to trust his siblings. Even the ones he loves the most, like Ysera, or even Malygos. Surely, he could not even mention this to Kalecgos. And don't tell Alexstrasza.

So, he made it his own task to answer his own questions. They were his business, after all. Like, what was south? What were those smoke monsters who attacked him in his visions? Who was the Black Prince?

Karazhan was fabled to be a place where visions of past, present, and future events collided. Within its halls, one could not only see what had been, or what could be, but events that occurred at this very moment in time, but in another world, or another universe altogether. Those visions Neltharion sought, they would answer his questions.

As the night encroached upon him from behind, Neltharion's eyes narrowed. The visions of the Ivory Tower could not only answer those questions, but the most important one of all…who was Neltharion before Deathwing plagued his mind? He had lost so much of his own memory. He could not remember who he was before the War of the Ancients. Deathwing took that away from him. This laps in memory also came with a laps in his own judgement. It stole his wisdom away, his cunning. Neltharion could not make the right decisions when it came to his own flight. He had forgotten what it meant to lead the Black Dragonflight, or how he did it. Deathwing stole it all and left Neltharion an emotional and mental wreck.

Karazhan could bring that all back, that is if it still had some power left.

Just a couple more hours left, and he would be there. He bounded up through the stratosphere. Anticipation hastened Neltharion's wings. He hoped to be there before night fell over Deadwind Pass.

His stomach clinched up upon the thought of being in Deadwind Pass after sundown.

As Neltharion passed over the rusty coastline near the Blasted Lands, he folded his wings and took a dive. The air burst all around him in a thunderous boom. As he dove, Neltharion pulled his legs in tightly to his body, controlling his direction with a subtle twitch of his throat frill. The long tresses of his beard whipped against his neck. The clouds parted as he shot through the clearing. Neltharion spread his wings wide, streams of condensed, cold air streaked behind their taloned tips. He angled his body downward, creating the drag to slow him down. The moment he was barely a mile above the ground, the Black Dragon shot across the coral-colored desert. His speed caused a bow-wave of dust to form upon the ground below.

He spied the Redridge Mountains looming closer and closer to him. With a mighty pump of his wings, Neltharion bounded over their jagged peaks only to land upon a tall cliff. Rocks cascaded down as the ground shook with his landing. The Aspect turned around towards the west and spied the sun slowly making its way closer to the horizon.

_Maybe, this will only take a minute,_ he thought as he leapt down to a lower overhang of rocks. He leapt from one level to another, descending towards the gray chasm of Deadwind Pass. As he did so, Neltharion's body shrank down until he came to level ground, his size now that of a human's. Neltharion heard the sound of a raven cawing above him and ducked his head as the large black bird swooped in low. It barely grazed the plated crest on the crown of his head. It came to perch upon the lamp post and the door to the main entrance Karazhan opened up, beckoning Neltharion in.

"I'm expected," Neltharion said softly to himself with a twitch of his right brow. "Which _isn't_ creepy at all." He went through the door and the raven followed behind him. Just as Neltharion pulled his tail through, squeezing his wings into the double door, the door slammed shut. He heard a click of a lock and swallowed dryly. "Who am I kidding, that was fucking creepy."

The dragon's eyes darted to the right upon the aching moan of the wooden supports. Then they darted to the left, hearing the hollow howl of a wind blowing through a hole.

"Alright," he began in a whisper. Neltharion raised his voice. "To the ghosts that live here. I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm just here to see what Nalice wanted with this place, who it was that killed her, and maybe who this Black Prince guy is. I am not here to disturb your eternal rest and I will leave as soon as I find what I need. We cool?"

The creaking joints moaned, sounding more like a lonely, sad animal. Neltharion cleared his throat.

"I'll…take that as a 'yes'," he said. "Alright. The sooner I find what I need, the sooner I can quickly get the hell outta here." Neltharion started to lightly step down the corridor. "Excuse me."

Neltharion made his way through the corridor, following the raven. It flew from beam to beam, guiding him down the long corridor. So far, so good, no ghosts.

The walls around him seemed to heave with a deep, solemn breath. The cobwebs draped over the openings like sad, rotting curtains. The raven hopped from silent torch to silent torch with the Black Aspect following. They passed down each uneventful corridor, heading up through the tower. Though Neltharion could not help but to be rather unnerved by the silence. He expected someone or something would jump out and snatch him up. His heart pounded with anticipation as he watched the walls. The most unsettling, wretching shudder which grazed chillingly across his shoulders was his expectation went unfulfilled.

The pads of Neltharion's feet ached frigidly with each stinging step he took. The deeper he went, the colder, the darker the tower of Karazhan appeared. The corridor he followed seemed to shift just slightly, tilt at an eschewed angle, and then bend the other way back. The lurch of the floor sent him slamming against a wall. He stood against the cold stone, looking around in the inky blackness. His eyes could not adjust as the light shifted, brightening, and then darkening. The change in light blinded his eyes, turning his vision milky gray. Neltharion lifted his head and heard the urgent squawk of his raven guide.

"Give me a moment!" he called to the bird. "Just a moment! I…I can't see."

Neltharion thumped the back of his paw against the floor, sending forth the vibrations that would help him see without the use of his eyes. The lay of the tower came back in ripples of black, gray, and white. But the echoes were all wrong. The waves splintered out like spider-webbing cracks of fragile glass. White filaments branching off in one direction and then turning back to another, or just disappearing altogether.

He could not see the floor, nor the corridor, or any doors or windows. He could not see the levels of the tower, their chambers and alcoves. There was nothing but the vision of fractured glass. His own seismic sight was failing him in this twisted, cursed place. Neltharion opened his eyes, daunted by what he saw.

The raven cawed again, becoming the Black Aspect forth.

"I…I can't see!" Neltharion called as he sank down against the wall. He opened his eyes, their vision still filled with the confusing gray haze, still trying to adjust but could not. "I…I'm blind."

He drew his wings around him, quivering. The raven chortled and clicked deeply in its throat.

"Just give me a moment," said Neltharion, his voice wavering to mutter a single word of that sentence. "Please…let my eyes adjust."

He gasped, reaching out to feel the floor in a desperate hope to find something stable. His body was heavy, the gravity of this corridor pinned him flat against the wall. The room spun like he had too much to drink. Neltharion's head slowly lowered down to the side. He could feel this numbness crawling up his fingers like maggots on decaying flesh. His stomach wretched and knotted inside his abdomen. As he lowered his forepaws to his side, the dragon stared at the opposite wall, blankly.

"Why am I here?" he whispered to himself. "Why the hell would I come to this place? For Nalice? She…betrayed me. They all did. They…didn't hear my call. Why would I care what happened to her when she abandoned me?"

He did not want to care anymore. Caring meant he was only going to hurt more. Caring meant that more and more people would abandon him when he wore out his usefulness. Why should he care if no one cared for him?

"This is all that I am," he said with destitute dripping from his breath. "Not a living being, but a tool. If I am not useful, then I am only in the way."

Neltharion plopped upon his side, letting the numbness finally stamping out the last of his senses. All was darkness.

There was a flash of green, an explosion up above. Neltharion moved his head only slightly to see a hole through the ceiling opening to the dark gray clouds above. Another flash of green, sickly and sallow. Streaking through the clouds like shooting stars, flaming sparks of green fire fell.

_"I will devour you and wear your carcass for a cloak!"_

Neltharion remembered hearing that said to him before, but by someone else telling him what his master will do to him if the Earth-Warder was caught. The walls became alight with green flame and the sounds of a hellish chant echoed from the outside. Cheers for a dark and destructive being resounded in glory and triumph. He heard the noises of women screaming in pain, men wailing, and children cowering.

Neltharion rose up from the floor with a start as the fire continued to spread all around him. Drums of war beat like thunder. The stone walls seemed to melt in the heat of the green licking tongues. Taloned hands reached out for him as demons rose out from the fire.

Then as soon as it was there, it was gone. Neltharion could feel the coolness of the corridor again.

"What the hell was that?" he whispered, shaking the fear from his mind.

Karazhan was such a mystery to him. Neltharion had heard the stories around it, the tower being the home of Medivh. The tower was positioned where all the leylines met. There were two other places that could say the same, one being the Nexus itself, and the other, the Maelstrom. Most specifically, what the Maelstrom once was, the Well of Eternity.

As Lord Daval Prestor, Deathwing had not taken an interest, at least from what he could tell, in Medivh's tower, which was even a mystery to Neltharion. Though they both shared the same body, Deathwing made certain to keep many of his plans away from Neltharion. So, the Earth-Warder could not perceive what sort of benefit this tower could pose for Deathwing, let alone Nalice. The tower itself did not exist ten thousand years ago. It was a recent structure, built between the time of the Sundering and when Medivh was born.

Neltharion kicked himself for not coming to Khadgar for some information about Karazhan before he rushed in so blindly. This was Khadgar's home as well as he studied under the guidance of Medivh. This was the place where Medivh began his plans to build the Dark Portal, under the instruction of Sargeras himself. It was only by the end of the Third War that the tower itself was emptied of its magic, taken by Medivh when he was given a second chance to save the world he swore to protect.

Still, the tower held many secrets.

Neltharion continued on, following the raven. The bird itself seemed to know exactly where Neltharion wanted to go and it was all the more happy to show it to him. That burning question graced his mind again. Is this raven what was left of Medivh after he disappeared at the end of the Third War?

"Or maybe I'm stupid," Neltharion whispered to himself as he trekked through the winding corridor. He came to a ramp that led him up, spiraling through the tower. As Neltharion started his clime, every torch and chandelier were suddenly lit.

"Oh…that makes things a bit easier," said Neltharion. He cast a frustrated glance at the raven. "Why the hell didn't you do that before?" He huffed, steam flowing from his jaws. "Medivh."

The raven did not acknowledge the name. Instead, it flew up between the spiraling ramp. Again, it squawked for Neltharion to follow it.

"I'm coming," he sighed.

As Neltharion came to a stop where he and the bird could look upon each other eye to eye, he huffed again.

"It makes me wonder," he began. "Are you going to tell me just what the hell I saw back there?"

The bird tilted its head, ruffling its feathers.

"Are you going to tell me?" Neltharion asked. "Or are you just going to be a big feathered dick?"

The raven took off again to a higher level without so much of a chirp.

"Feathered dick it is then," the Aspect said, ending with a growled under his breath.

As he continued his ascent, Neltharion felt another bite of frost gripping his body. He exhaled his hot breath and it came out in a puff of white mist.

_"Perhaps…you were right all along, dear brother…"_

"What the hell is it now?" Neltharion asked as he swung his head around. The floor all around him began to freeze, ice crystals crawling up the walls and onto the floor, spreading like gnarled fingers.

_"You were right…and I was the blind one…"_

He knew that voice and his heart leapt into his throat.

"Malygos?" Neltharion whispered.

_"I really was the fool…"_

The ramp stretched on and on as stalactites of ice jutted down from the ceiling. The rock glowed with arcane runes of blue, orange, and white. Once again, Neltharion was whisked away from Karazhan to somewhere else. But this time, he knew this place. It looked like the interior of the Nexus itself. Shafts of arcane blue-white energy stretched through the many chambers. Neltharion could hear the hum of a dynamo inside. Electricity flashed and sparked from pylon to pylon.

"The mortals…how they corrupt everything they touch," Neltharion heard Malygos say as he followed the voice. "They poison the magic. And they will destroy themselves with it! They will take this planet with them as well. Dear Neltharion, how could I have betrayed you? You were right! It was our idiotic sister who was wrong…she thinks she knows what is best for any of us. Her compassion has blinded her!"

At last he reached the source of the voice and found Malygos there, hunched over with his back turned to him. Though this Malygos was no ghost. He was solid. Neltharion could see the glowing aura of purples, pinks, indigo energy radiating out from the Spell-Weaver's body. He stood in the spotlight upon a platform made of carved glass. The lightning danced around his body, a full display of his power. And glowing markings upon his shoulders and hips pulsed with life. His eyes glowed fiery orange and wild as he turned towards Neltharion. Malygos made no motion to indicate that he saw the visitor.

"I paid for my failures," Malygos continued, his deep voice heavy with sorrow. "Paid for it…watched my brother slaughter my flight one after another…and now…my own sister…"

"Malygos," Neltharion. "Oh…damn it…no…I'm so sorry…"

Neltharion stepped out onto the platform where Malygos sat. All around him danced runes of ancient magics. Neltharion walked around to the front of Malygos, seeing him studying a line of code displayed upon the air and surrounded by arcane circles and other geometric shapes. The Great Black took in a deep breath in realization of what he looked upon. It was the _Arcanomicon_, the map of all the leylines on Azeroth. Norgannon gifted this knowledge to Malygos alone upon his creation. As the Aspect of Magic, Malygos was the protector of the leylines, up until his death. Now that fell upon Kalecgos. It was the duty of the Blue Dragonflight to update the _Arcanomicon_ each time a leyline was either severed or reconnected. The leylines had changed so much over the centuries, mostly due to the mortals who began diverting them or connecting new pathways for the purpose of magical use. It were these changes that infuriated Malygos the most.

"They've damaged them too much!" Malygos hissed as his eyes looked upon the map. "Those greedy, filthy creatures. They know naught what they do! And it is much too late now to stop the damage. I have no choice. I do this to save this world. I do this because I am the Aspect of Magic, I must protect it from those who will use it for evil!"

With that, he took hold of a glass orb that pulsated with indigo energy.

"Dear brother," Malygos said. "I have learned so much from you, including this. Like you created the Dragon Soul from your blood, so have I created the Focusing Iris from mine. You taught me a lesson I will never forget, nor could I ever repay. You were right…in all your villainy, you were right! And I betrayed you. I struck you down, I helped that red bitch and her consort defeat you. And look at how I was repaid. How wrong I was to do so. I pushed you away when I could have helped you." The Blue Aspect brought the Focusing Iris close and clutched it to his deep breast. "I…don't deserve the love you gave me all those years before you…fell…I never deserved your love."

"Don't say that," said Neltharion, feeling the poignant sting of tears at the edge of his lower lids. His teeth chattered at the shudder of his breath and his heart clutched in his chest as the agony of melancholy sliced at it. "Of course you deserved my love. It is I who never deserved yours. Malygos. How could something as pitiful as me ever deserve to have a caring brother like you? You never betrayed me. I betrayed you…I betrayed everyone!"

"I will make it up to you, Neltharion," he said, Neltharion's words to him went unheard. "I will set it right. How…cold I was when I last saw you. How…unforgiving of you. Now I can only wish that you would forgive me. Maybe the world can forgive me for allowing it all to tumble down into darkness like this." He shut his eyes. "If ever there was a wish I could make…I wish I could erase the last twelve thousand years, Neltharion. I really wish it. Just make it all go away. But all I have is this." He peered upon his Focusing Iris. "It will have to do."

Malygos rose up, allowing the orb to float around him.

"I will do what I must to right the wrongs I have done," he said softly. "Azeroth's magic must be contained…"

"Malygos," said Neltharion as he reached out for his brother. He could taste the bitter anguish in his own bile as he looked upon his dejected, saddened brother. His claw gripped air and he stumbled forward over the edge of the glass platform. The Great Black dug his talons into the surface, holding on for dear life. All around him, once more, the room returned back to Karazhan. Neltharion found himself now dangling by his claws dug into stone over the ramp.

"The living hell…" he gasped as his talons scraped long furrows into the stone. He scrambled for another grip, hoisting himself upon the ledge. As he pulled himself upon the ramp, Neltharion backed against the curved wall, breathing heavily. "What is going on?!"

The raven cawed again and Neltharion snapped his head to its direction, his eyes glowing dully orange.

"What the hell was that?!" he called, Neltharion could till feel his heart lurching over the scene he witnessed. He pushed those anguishing emotions into the pit of his stomach, allowing his depression be clouded by his irritation and rage. "You are going to explain, Medivh. And I know it's you under those feathers. I know. I'm not that stupid…I am stupid…but I'm not that stupid."

The bird flew from its perch and fluttered into his face. Its long black beak started to peck right at the Earth-Warder's right eye. Neltharion barked and batted his head. The raven backed away and cawed again.

"Do not peck my eye out!" he called. "My scales maybe as tough as elementium, but that doesn't mean I can't feel pain! You do that again, I'm gonna bake you into shepherd's pie!"

He continued upward with the raven once more leading away. Neltharion's eyes still held their dull glow, his own anger continuing to boil under his scales.

"Blackbirds in a pie…" he whispered, trying to get his mind off of seeing the vision of Malygos, or his younger self, and not making sense of any of it. Neltharion huffed and began a canter.

_"Sing a song o' sixpence,_

_A pocket full of rye._

_Four and twenty blackbirds,_

_Baked in a pie."_

He at last rounded a corner, coming to a level floor.

_"When the pie was opened,_

_The birds began to sing;_

_Wasn't that a dainty dish,_

_To set before the king?"_

For all he knew, pulling out an old Lordaeron nursery rhyme from his mind made as much sense as the visions he had saw. The level he came to was decorated in fine wood and the floors were covered in ornate, colorful rugs. All around him, there were books stacked neatly on the shelves, books from everywhere and held almost every secret. The chamber was softly lit by the glow of torches and oil lamps. Neltharion spied ancient artifacts that he had not seen before, from places that he vaguely remembered. A desk was covered in vellum parchment written in many different languages. A quill pen made from the primary flight feather of a raven was still dipped in its ink well. It looked rather archaic by now, due to the Alliance switching over to wooden and steel or gold dip pens and fountain pens. But the quill was still favored by the mages due to the various types of feathers that are needed to write certain spells in spell books.

Neltharion paused, seeing the light from the chandelier begin to swing and turned around. The raven had perched itself upon its metallic ring. The Black Aspect sighed with relief and made his way towards the book shelves. He sniffed the air and he could smell the distinct, sweetened musk of a female black dragon within the library. Nalice had been here.

He was in the right place at last.

Neltharion allowed Nalice's scent to guide him across the floor towards the items she had touched. As he drew closer to the shelves, another scent started to overly upon Nalice's. The scent was that of a member of the Black Dragonflight, but it smelled unfamiliar. Neltharion knew the personal scent of all his dragons. But this one was alien to him. The Aspect could smell the scene was from a very young dragon, possibly a whelpling or a drake. But there was another smell that disturbed him, a power that came from this young one that no whelpling would ever have. This was a newborn who held vast power.

This was a freak.

Neltharion came close to a red-bound book next to a glass jar filled with dirt. He paused when he looked at the jar.

"Why would Medivh have dirt?" he asked. "Unless it's…special dirt? It has to be special dirt. Otherwise, why would the Guardian of Tirisfal have it? Time to throw caution to the wind and open her up."

His curiosity took control as he reached out for the jar and opened it up. He could smell Nalice's own scent on the jar as well as the strange whelpling's scent. But the moment he opened it up, he smelled something else, a stench he was both familiar with and not familiar with. He could smell the scent of Old Gods, a putrid, rotting smell he came to acquaint them with. An then, there was that song, that sickening song he heard rise out from the dirt, the same sound he heard coming from the south, and from his strange dreams. As he removed the lid slowly, a strange black vapor rose up from the dirt, reaching out over the rim of the jar like thin, spidery legs. Neltharion sputtered and dropped the jar. It shattered upon the floor, spilling the dirt and the black vapor. The cloud rose slowly as the dragon backed away, reaching out to him with twisted, crooked talons. Two pairs of eyes opened up from the center of the cloud.

"…the fuck are you…?!" Neltharion said with a choking snarl as the vapor took hold of his forepaws. "Let go!"

The Earth-Warder growled as the vapor crawled up his forelegs.

"Lesson…learned…" he grunted. "I…won't do…anything so stupid…again…"

Like living tar, the inky substance latched upon his shoulders and the entity forced Neltharion to his knees. It was one of the most uncomfortable position he had ever been forced in. His high ankles splayed his feet out, popping his joints. His knees ached from being in such an unnatural position. Neltharion called out as his weight buckled upon his joints. His tail bent and contorted to achingly accommodate this humiliating and crooked pose. His wrists were bound to the floor by the black vapor. He extended his wings, giving them a flap, desperately trying to pull himself from the floor. Neltharion bellowed as he felt both his upper arms snap as they dislocated from the shoulder joints. The Great Black's front fell to the floor. His silver streaked beard tangled around his face and into his horns. Slowly, the vapor began to craw into his nostrils, his gaping mouth, and into the tear ducts of his eyes. Neltharion whimpered as he felt the vapor filled his senses with nothing but it.

And darkness…

* * *

_She has killed your flight, slaughtered them like they were cattle!_

Two pairs of white eyes opened up to look upon him.

_You must destroy him before he slaughters more of those you love!_

Another two pairs of white eyes opened to look upon him.

_What kind of guardian are you if after every turn, you failed in your duties?_

A third pair of white eyes opened up to look upon him.

_Your strength fails those who need it the most. If this was not the case, then why did she leave you?_

A fourth pair of white eyes opened.

_You are not strong enough to be the Earth-Warder. You never were._

A fifth pair of eyes opened.

_You will never be loved. Or respected. You deserve none of it. Even she knew that._

A sixth pair of eyes opened.

_Oh, how you revel in your power over the weak. _

A seventh pair of eyes opened.

The seven voices spoke out in unison.

_But do not fool yourself. You were no better off as you are now, than you were as Deathwing. Different name…same motive. To snuff out those who you perceive as evil. You needed us to show you which was real, and which was the dream…_

* * *

_"Maybe if I give them what they want…they will leave me alone…"_

The words sound so chillingly familiar to him. They were spoken with such hard indifference. Whoever it was that spoke them, he no longer cared. Neltharion forced his eyes to open in the bitter darkness. He lifted his head, but his body still remained in that tormenting posture. His paws were still bound to the floor. He was in a featureless void. He could still feel those coarse white eyes staring at him from the dark. In front, he could barely make out the form of a black dragon in the darkness. He saw a line of crystals upon its back, glowing with violet and indigo light. The dragon's silky, long, ebony beard hung in soft, relaxed ringlets about the dragon's chest. He was well groomed and sat with purpose and poise. The dragon's body was slender, gracefully curved, smooth. The eyes of the strange dragon glowed dully orange, a glow Neltharion could not mistake.

Softly, light returned to the room, illuminating it with a dull golden glow. All around him were ornate decorations that seem both familiar and alien. Crimson red tapestries and wooden columns wrapped with serpent-like creatures set in gold and jewels were all around him.

"I will give them what they want," the dragon whispered once more in that detached tone. "They will leave me alone. Leave us…alone."

That voice of the dragon was so familiar. It almost sound like his, but the intonation was off. It was not as deep as his is now. It sounded younger as well. A voice dancing between a smooth tenor and a rich baritone. Not the deep, sonorous bass that his voice had become.

_This is wrong,_ Neltharion thought, his mind spinning over how aloof the dragon in front of him sounded.

He thought he heard another voice that joined with the strange dragon's voice, though there was no one else in the room but him. Neltharion wanted so much to back away from the dragon in front of him, but his limbs would not respond. The force that held him trapped would not let him go. And the sound he heard from the dragon and whoever it was else in the room, only grew louder. Neltharion shut his eyes, hoping to drive away what he saw, to purge his memories of how wrong this felt to him. Once more, he pulled to escape. Only there he remained, not moving an inch.

Disheartened, Neltharion at last opened his eyes again. This time, he saw something else even more wrong than before. Instead of again seeing the dragon with the crystals, he instead saw himself, the bloated black dragon before him with elementium armor running down his spine and a black, disheveled, unkempt beard laced with silvery locks.

_This is wrong!_

He was in the body of this slender, finely muscled dragon, seeing through its eyes.

"I am a failure," Neltharion heard himself say from across the room. "I…am no Aspect. I failed everyone…I deserve nothing from them. Nothing has changed. I cannot erase the past, no matter how much I want to."

He could hear his own voice now having the same despondent tone. Now the sound that accompanied the words was growing even louder. It was a horrible noise, a clash of deceptive cadence and a thunderous half-diminished chord. It was a tense sound that pulled at every piece of Neltharion's body, stretching him until he could stretch no more. That sound, he could not forget it no matter how hard he tried. It was the same chord he once heard on that beach in his visions not so long ago.

At last the sound let him go. The eyes that once peered into him, released him as well.

* * *

Neltharion opened his eyes to the sharp pain of his shoulders. He could feel the tendons inside already beginning to reattach themselves, pulling the bones back into their sockets. He laid there, helpless as he waited for his joints to heal. Above rested the raven, waiting for him to move. Beside him was the plot of dirt where the horrible creature had sprung. No dark mist rose from it now.

"Tell me," he began, his voice reaching out to the raven. "What was that thing?"

The raven never spoke, not a single chirp.

"Come on, Medivh!" Neltharion bellowed. "What the hell was that thing?! I need to know!"

Still, the raven remained silent, ever still upon its perch.

"It had Nalice's scent on it," said Neltharion. "And the whelpling's scent too. Was that the thing they were after? Please, tell me!"

He pulled himself together and achingly rose from the floor. Neltharion winced as his sore shoulders screamed upon bearing his weight.

"Why the hell won't you talk?!" he asked, his voice trembling the floor with every note of his anger. "Talk!"

_I came back to ensure that there would be a future. Now that my task is done, I will take my place…amongst the legends of the past._

He heard those words sift their way into his mind. At last he heard the voice of Medivh, but only now a shadow of a thought of who and what he was and nothing more. The raven, whether it was Medivh or not, would offer no comfort, only to point him in the right direction, as Medivh had done for Jaina, for Arthas, for Terenas, and for Go'el. Whether he understood the message was not Medivh's, nor the raven's concern. What mattered was that the message had been heard.

But for a brief moment, Neltharion thought he saw the former Guardian of Tirisfal instead of the raven. A long and lanky figure cloaked in crimson and trimmed in black feathers. Eyes of cold steel, but a salt and peppered hair and beard.

_You saw what you saw…just as the other two did before you._

"Velen was right," said Neltharion as the vision of Medivh vanished. "I…have to figure this out…away from this place." He took in a deep breath. "One mystery solved…"

He took his leave, fumbling back down through the tower, despite his aching joints. Neltharion hobbled as swiftly as he could out the mouth of Deadwind Pass west towards the Blasted Lands. He worked out the stiffness and the pain from his joints as he traversed the gray landscape of Deadwind Pass. The bleakness of night had already started to give way to the ashen morning. The Blue Child was setting, but the White Lady still hung low over the west, guiding his way to the Blasted Lands.

The moment he could feel the stiffness fade away, Neltharion returned to his true size and took off.

The Blasted Lands was a flat, rusty landscape, only marred by jagged mountains and pitted with craters created from lightning strikes and the remains of fel fire infernals that once rained down from the sky. Virtually, the desert was deserted, save for a sparse few settlements. Most of the demons have been all but cleared away by the combined forces of both the Alliance and the Horde during their secession of hostilities to focus upon the Burning Legion spilling out from the Dark Portal once more.

He figured it was as good a place as any to at last rest and think things over. The Dark Portal was for now of a least concern for anyone in Azeroth, though they still kept a few outposts to keep an eye on the portal just in case. There was no one alive who could destroy the portal, nor would anyone attempt it now after what happened last time. The Dark Portal was here to stay as a reminder that the Burning Legion was still out in the darkness of space, waiting and biding its time for another chance to strike.

Just like the Hour of Twilight, and the Old Gods.

Neltharion's flight turned away from the portal to a rather large and flat mesa. He rested his body upon the land formation, looking out over a vast scorched, empty land. A strike of lightning in the cloudless sky, an ever vigilant reminder of the turbulent forces within the Blasted Lands. But he could easily ignore it. Neltharion calmed his heart, slowing its beat as he rested his head upon his paws. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind and spirit to blend with the soil beneath him. He could feel himself descend down into the rock until there was no discernible feature that separated him from it. His limbs now stretched all around the planet itself, a part of the planet. He could hear everything, touch everything, taste everything. He was everything, the sky, the ground, the ocean, and the beating, fiery heart of Azeroth.

It was exhilarating, relieving to once more feel so loose and free.

He could feel the continents now as a part of his own skin. All four of them…

_Wait, four?!_

Neltharion was confused. There really was a large landmass to the south, a landmass he had never sensed before. It was a continent nearly the size of Northrend resting close to the South Pole. He knew every landmass, even those that sank beneath the waves, or broke apart during the Sundering. But the lands that broke up Old Kalimdor were New Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Northrend. There was not a land to the south, it was lost!

At least that was what he could remember.

But there it was, grazing against his right foot. A land that he had to blend with the planet itself to sense was there. Because there was something that blocked his external view of it.

_A barrier?_

He could feel the strange continent's size, but not its shape. The barrier prevented him from doing so. It was a mist that shrouded the continent, hiding it from his view. He tried to send forth vibrations to allow him to see through the mist, see if there were beings on this continent, or any sort of life. The image he got back from the landmass was the same as what he saw in Karazhan. It was a gray void that was shattered by splintering shards of white. Neltharion let loose a cry as the agonizing sound returned to him, sending flashes of stark, bright white into his senses. He could not see beyond the gray.

Neltharion growled in frustration.

_I will not be defeated like this! I am the Earth-Warder, no matter what sort of Earth-Warder I am. I am suppose to know about every landmass. That is fact! I'll tear that mist apart!_

With that, he dug his talons into the mists and ripped through, spreading them apart like a curtain blocking a window. As he peeled away its layers, Neltharion could now see distinct formations of tall mountains and valleys, rivers, basins, and crooked coastlines. He could see towns now, villages on the lowlands and highlands, and people…

A tsunami of sensations slammed his mind. Neltharion tore himself away from the continent as his body was now wracked with pain. He ungulates against the serge, crying out as more and more white flashes blinded his sight and a terrible ring deafened his ears. There it was again, that horrible sound, the diminished chord and the deceptive cadence that mocked him. His hypersensitive sensors could not cope with the bombing of the serge and Neltharion struggled just to stay conscious. The last of his barriers were obliterated and the Earth-Warder was comatose and limp upon the mesa.

Once again, darkness had saved him…numbness was his only companion.

Darkness…


	4. Chapter 3

**章三**

**Chapter 3**

Malygos rested upon the glassy platform, surrounded with familiar sounds and sights of arcane energy. Though he was no longer connected to the realm of magic, his ghostly body could not command the wondrous power that brought him so much joy, it did not mean he hadn't felt at home here. Being in the Nexus was one of the few places where he could feel somewhat happy. He hated being dead, no longer an Aspect, and worse yet, no longer useful. His power was now held by someone who he felt was undeserving of it. He agreed with his brother Neltharion that Kalecgos was no Aspect of Magic. The young blue dragon could only pretend to be insightful about how magic worked in Malygos' eyes. Kalecgos could also not even begin to understand the connection the Aspect of Magic shared with the Aspect of Earth.

There was a deep connection Malygos shared with Neltharion, deeper than neither of them could describe. The things they could do when they combined their powers. The ecstasy of what happens when they do. There were no words to the glorious rapture they both felt or the glowing warmth afterwards. Malygos missed that. Death tore that away from him. If ever there was a time that his brother needed, him, it was now. Instead, his brother has an under-qualified dragon and a poor replacement for the Spell-Weaver who most of the time, silently hated to be near Neltharion let alone try to understand him. What was worse than that? Neltharion, because of the torment Deathwing plagued his mind with, could remember none of it.

And it was all Malygos' fault.

_I betrayed Neltharion…_he thought as he has done since he returned to the Nexus to recover from the mana bomb almost three months ago. _Again and again, I have betrayed him. I did not hear his distress when Deathwing slowly took him, and now because I am dead…I cannot come to his aid when he needs me the most. This world is so cruel to the both of us._

At least Neltharion remembered that they did love each other, they were very close. He just could not remember the feeling, nor the reason. Malygos was afraid to tell him. Perhaps it would only serve to push Neltharion further away. So, the ghost went slowly, only enjoying that there was the love in Neltharion's eyes. His brother needed him.

The ghostly dragon turned towards the sound of voices. He saw Kalecgos in his half-elven form walking with Lady Jaina Proudmoore, showing her the importance of this alliance between the Blue Dragonflight and Dalaran. They had just returned from visiting the cage that Kalecgos kept Chromatus trapped. Chromatus was a monster created from the energies of all five Dragonflights. It was a dragon with five heads, each one representing the five Dragonflights, red, green, bronze, black, and blue. The Council of Six was going to help Kalecgos keep a constant vigil over the creature's prison. They agreed to even keep the Focusing Iris under lock and key within Dalaran itself, despite Malygos' protests against it. Though Kalecgos reminded the former Aspect that the Iris now belongs to the Blue Dragonflight and that they shall decide what should be done with it.

_No it doesn't, you idiot, _Malygos thought. _It belongs to me. I am here, I still exist. I may be dead, but I am still here! It belongs to me!_

"I can tell you are still brooding over Lord Kalecgos' decisions to show the new leader of Dalaran everything about the Nexus," spoke a soft, and pert voice behind him. "My love, please do not stress yourself over this. You need to relax and recover."

_"You do not need to remind me what I need to do, Haleh," _said Malygos. _"I am not some old wyrm on his last leg. I lost my legs seven years ago."_

He swung his head around to the periwinkle-hued female dragon slowly walking up beside him. Haleh, his youngest and now only living consort, Malygos was thankful of her company. Even in death, he was not completely alone. He reached his translucent paw out to cup her face and she tilted her head into his pad. Even in death, he could feel her touch.

_"How can I relax when I can feel my brother's distress?" _Malygos asked.

"Relax for your brother," she said. "So that you can be strong enough to keep him company."

_"And then there is Kalecgos," _he said. _"You can't agree that what he is doing is right?"_

"No, I don't agree with it," said Haleh. "I don't at all. But ours is not to question what the Aspect decides. Was that not your rule as well?"

_"It was a foolish rule, my lovely Haleh," _Malygos said. _"One that I now regret making."_

He gazed into her lavender eyes. There was still the warmth of love for him deep inside those sparkling, reflecting pools. And he still loved her despite his conflicting emotions over his current predicament.

Suddenly, the icy cavern began to tremble. Malygos tore himself away from Haleh's eyes and looked up, watching as shards of icy daggers broke and plummeted towards the ground. Haleh swiftly called upon a burst of magical energy and a shield formed around both her and Malygos, protecting them from the falling ice. Then, out from a tunnel came a rush of steam, a wave of heat and water vapor. Dragonspawn dispersed and young drakes took flight. Blue whelplings huddled close to their broodmothers.

"What in the world…" Haleh called. "What's happening?"

Kalecgos burst out from above, in full dragon form with Jaina riding upon his back. As the scalding steam rushed forth, the Blue Aspect roared. Colors of blue, purple, and red exploded in front of him and the surging cloud split in two, each tendril spreading forth, stretching away from them. As the surge at last desipated, Kalecgos landed and Jaina hopped off from his shoulders.

"What was that?" Jaina asked. "What happened?"

"I…I don't know," said Kalecgos. He turned to Malygos who shook his ghostly head.

"Lord Kalecgos," said Haleh. "I feel it…the temperature in the Nexus…it's gone up."

_"No doubt from that steam surge," _said Malygos. _"But what caused it?"_

"It does feel a bit hotter in here," said Jaina. She unbuttoned her furry parka. "I think I can take this coat off now." She looked up at the Great Blue who then swiftly took humanoid shape. "Kalec, that tremor felt…like it was deep in the rock itself."

"Well, the Nexus is sitting on a dormant volcanic caldera," said Kalecgos. "Certainly was never my idea to put it here…" His stark blue eyes lifted to Malygos. "I probably would have chosen a more stable ground."

_"Oh, there you go again, Young Kalecgos," _said Malygos. _"Reminding me of my mistakes as you always do! Just because Neltharion is not here, does not mean you can keep that condescending, stuffy tone. I chose this spot because of the nexus of leylines it sits upon. It was perfect for my operations. Why do you think it's called the Nexus? There's a meaning behind the name."_

"It's a volcano!" said Kalecgos. "The worst place you could ever put a home on."

_"Neltharion can live on a volcano with no trouble," _said Malygos. _"In fact he did, did he not, Jaina? Your island sat upon a submerged caldera…hmmm?"_

"I shouldn't have chosen Theramore to be there…" said Jaina. "But yes."

"Only because Neltharion can control…volcanoes…" Kalecgos' voice drifted, turning away. Malygos could see the wheels winding and spinning inside the young Aspect's mind, and his eyes darkening with every possible conclusion he was leading himself to. Kalecgos' expressions were one of the easiest things to read.

_"Don't you dare blame this on my little brother!" _Malygos said with a hiss.

"I'm not blaming anything…or anyone…"

_"Oh, yes, you are! I see that look in your eye. Don't you lie to me, you conniving, belligerent brat."_

Kalecgos' face flushed: "You can't call me a brat, Malygos! I'm the Aspect of Magic, I should get some sort of respect from you."

_"Only for the last three years," _said Malygos. _"And you have yet to prove to me why I should respect you. First you get my Focusing Iris stolen by the Horde to make that horrible weapon…that destroyed your new girlfriend's home…"_

Jaina looked away.

"Now wait just one second!" said Kalecgos.

_"That also killed many of my brother's flight," _said Malygos. _"Breaking his heart even more. And what have you done these last three months? Have you gone to him after that…ungrateful hag crushed what remained of his heart? Have you offered him comfort? I at least have tried to reach out to him, but because again of that damned bomb, I can barely even move from this place…"_

"Lord Kalecgos!" called a voice as another female blue dragon flew down upon the platform. She paused and dipped her head respectfully to the former Aspect of Magic. "Forgive the interruption, my father…"

_"It is alright, my beloved daughter," _said Malygos. _"What has happened, Kirygosa?"_

"Father, the scouting drakes reported in," she replied, transforming into a lovely young human woman with ashen blue hair and a royal blue dress. "They say the caldera is unzipping. Heated steam from the melting ice exploded forth from the cracks…they think the volcano might erupt."

"Oh no!" Jaina said with a gasp. "Your home, your home is going to be destroyed if it erupts."

"We must evacuate," said Kalecgos. "Kiry, report to everyone…tell them we need to evacuate the Nexus."

_"And just leave it to be destroyed?!" _Malygos asked. _"I will not have this place destroyed! The volcano can be stopped."_

"I don't have that kind of power, Malygos!" said Kalecgos.

_"I know, but Neltharion does," _said Malygos. _"And if you would just shove your pride up your damned cloaca for once and ask him to help you, this problem can be solved in a half a second!" _He pointed towards the exit. _"Just teleport to where he is and ask him! Evacuate the Nexus, and go and ask Neltharion. He'll come over, fix it, and it will be over. That is why the Earth-Warder was made, to fix problems like this. He's the maintenance guy for the entire planet! Just call him up and have him fix it."_

"Why do I feel like Neltharion is the one who caused it?" asked Kalecgos.

"Right now, I don't think that's important," said Jaina.

"The mortal is right," said Haleh. "We must focus on evacuating the Nexus and find either the Earth-Warder or one of his flight to…stop the eruption."

"Mortal…seriously…" Jaina sighed, whispering under her breath. Kalecgos placed his arm around her.

"I know…" he said. "I know."

_"Kalec," _began Malygos. _"We cannot allow the Nexus to be destroyed. That freakish monstrosity you locked up in here. It'll get free if the Nexus crumbles."_

"Chromatus cannot be destroyed either," said Kalecgos. "We already tried…the Aspects already tried and they failed."

_"Then you know why I said the Nexus must be saved! There are other things in here that also cannot be let loose upon the world. The Nexus has a purpose. We have to find a way to stop this eruption." _

"Alright," said Kalecgos. "I'll call Neltharion and he'll stop it. But let's just get everyone to safety first!"

Blue dragons bellowed through the icy caverns as the Nexus continued to quake. Ice walls cracked open, releasing more steam and Malygos could hear the sound of water already trickling down from above. He kept close to Haleh and Kirygosa, keeping his vigil upon his young daughter. She was one of the few children he had left. He turned his head to see Jaina once more riding on Kalecgos' back as he bellowed his alarm for his flight to follow.

Kalecgos gathered many blue dragons to him, forming a protective shield around them. Other dragons did the same. Malygos looked behind him as an ice pillar toppled over, crushing a young mother and her whelplings. And his ghostly heart fell. Even more blue dragons were caught up in the scalding surge of steam, boiling raw in the heat.

_We can rebuild the damaged rooms and tunnels,_ Malygos thought. _But we cannot bring back lives lost!_

The blue dragons swiftly exited the Nexus, shooting up through the Oculus's lavender beam and straight through the rings. Malygos watched as many of the rings began to collide into one another, toppling upon the cracking ground. Steam and now volcanic ash raced up towards the sky as the Coldarra split open to reveal the orange, fiery pit underneath.

They brought themselves to a perch safely away from the eruption.

"Maybe we can figure out how to block the lava," said Kalecgos. "To buy Neltharion time so he can get here. Where is he…anyways?"

"Azuremyst Isle," said Jaina. "That was the last I heard of him after Calia left. And from the adventurers who have stopped by Dalaran, I've heard that he has taken up a permanent residence there, perhaps to learn from Velen and heal. After all, Velen and Neltharion are roughly the same age. Neltharion just wants to keep the company of someone as old as he, who isn't a dragon. Velen may be teaching him how to control his emotions since his powers and his swelling are very much tied to them."

_"I wish he would come here and stay instead," _said Malygos. _"But I can see why…"_ he broke off to look scoldingly upon Kalecgos. _"…why he would not feel welcomed."_

"Yeah, well, I have a feeling this is his doing in the first place!" said Kalecgos. "So he better damn well answer me so he can fix this mess he's making! How do I summon him?"

_"You use the connection that you have with the Aspect of Earth, Kalecgos," _said Malygos. _"And you send your message through the leylines. Neltharion can hear their song through the rock and if he detects something is wrong, he can follow the sound right here."_

"And we'll be up to our elbows in lava by that time," said Kalecgos.

_"No, you won't," _said Malygos. _"Coldarra is…what Neltharion calls…a stratovolcano."_

"And what the hell does that mean?"

_"It means something much worse," _said Malygos. _"Stratovolcanoes don't spew out lava because the lava is too viscus. Instead, it builds up pressure and ka-boom! After a series of incidents leading up to it. But we do have time before the big explosion where the island will in fact blow its…crater."_

"Oh, Light…" said Jaina.

"How long do we have, father?" Kirygosa asked.

_"A day, maybe two…" _said Malygos. _"But we must have him here to stop it before it reaches that point."_

"As in the earlier, the better," said Kalecgos. "Alright, I'll…try it your way…"

Malygos watched intently as Kalecgos closed his eyes to focus upon the leylines. Then, the Aspect roared and brought his paw to his head.

"Kalec!" called Jaina, coming to his forepaw and laying a hand upon the knobby scales. "What's wrong."

"What's that horrible sound?" he asked.

The other blue dragons then doubled over as well, holding their heads, wincing in pain. Malygos looked around at his flight. Then, he closed his eyes and called out to the leylines as well. Though he was dead, there was still a piece of him that held a fragment of his power as an Aspect. It was not much, but it was enough for him to sense the disturbance. There it was, a flash of broken glass and stars, a terrifying clash of dissonance and a scream of agony.

_"Neltharion…"_ he said. _"It's Neltharion…"_

"I knew he was the cause of this!" Kalecgos called.

_"No, he's in trouble," _said Malygos. _"I can hear it."_

"Kalec, Malygos maybe right," said Jaina. "I know that Neltharion's emotions are tied to his power. I've seen it for myself in fact. If he's in trouble, or someone is tormenting him…all that emotion can build up and…well it's what's causing the eruption in Coldarra. To stop this destruction, we have to help Nel." She stood, concentrating upon the magical energies flowing through the ground. "I can feel it too now. We have to help him."

Malygos turned to the sound of flapping wings and looked up to see a young red dragon fly overhead.

"Lord Kalecgos," he bellowed. "My Queen has requested your presence at Wyrmrest!"

"I can't leave the Nexus," said Kalecgos. "As you can see, I'm in the middle of a crisis here!"

"We know," said the young red. "That is why she has summoned you. The volcano of the Obsidian Dragonshrine is erupting as well."

"Oh, terrific!" Kalecgos blurted out with a shrill thrum. "More good news. Don't tell me…Mr. Earth-Warder is the cause."

"We don't know," said the red. "But the black dragons guarding the shrine have all…collapsed. Unconscious. Ambassador Siderion also has collapsed. Alexstrasza is tending to them in the Chamber of Aspects."

_"The black dragons are unconscious?" _Malygos asked.

"Yes, Former-Spell-Weaver," said the red dragon. "Please, you must come with me."

_"This so much more dire than I thought," _said Malygos. _"Neltharion may not be doing this deliberately. We have time."_ He looked out towards the Nexus. _"It's quieting down a little."_

"The rest of us will remain here and watch the Nexus, Lord Kalecgos," said Haleh.

"We'll protect it, father," Kirygosa.

_"I know you will, my dear," _said Malygos. _"Come on, Kalec, Alexstrasza has need of us."_

"But what about the Nexus?" asked Kalecgos. "What if it goes off again?"

"Kalec," began Jaina. "I have a solution. I'll teleport to Azuremyst Isle and see if Neltharion is there…see if he's conscious or not. If he isn't, then I'll grab Nobundo and any Draenei shaman who were taught by Neltharion…any member of the Earthen Ring there and they can come here and maybe slow the eruption down. After all, that's why Neltharion taught the Earthen Ring his knowledge. He knew he needed help because his flight isn't large enough right now to take up the task that they had before the Sundering. Alright?"

"Alright," said Kalecgos with a sigh of relief. He lowered his head to nuzzle her thankfully with his snout. Jaina gave it a good pat. As Kalecgos pulled away, he smiled. "You don't know how much of a lifesaver you are right now, Jaina."

"It's what I'm here for, Kalec," she said. "Don't…lose your scales over this. We're going to save the Nexus."

"I love you," said Kalecgos as Jaina raised up her hand, preparing her teleportation spell.

"I love you," she said. And then Jaina vanished in a flash of blue-white light.

Kalecgos looked to Malygos with a smile: "My…girlfriend is…awesome."

_"Well she is the only member of the Council of Six that I willingly tolerate," _said Malygos. "_After all, she is a dear friend to my brother."_

"Good luck, father," Kirygosa.

"Safe winds, my love," said Haleh.

_"Tell…Aspect Kalecgos of…any changes in the volcano's…I believe Neltharion called it a lava dome…" _he began. _"It's that round mound over there near those dead trees. And it's swelling a bit. That will be your biggest clue."_

"We will," said Haleh.

With that, Malygos and Kalecgos took off with the red dragon for Wyrmrest. As they flew over the flat and barren lands of the Borean Tundra, after leaving the straight separating the island from Northrend, they soon beheld Dragonblight. The large ice cap of Dragonblight was covered with thousands of long dead dragon bones. Malygos could see off in the distance a dull red glow. The volcano that guarded the Obsidian Dragonshrine was dangerously active, spewing forth its own ash into the sky and blocking out the aurora above.

Everything felt colder around Northrend, it has been much colder than usual within the last three months since the major eruption of the Theramore supervolcano. Even the Titan climate regulating pylons in the Sholazar Basin were having much difficulties keeping up with the change in global temperatures.

Malygos could at last see the tall, ancient structure that was Wyrmrest, silhouetted against the glow of the volcano. The ghost dragon and the Aspect dove for the ground and both phased completely through until they came out into a vast, featureless, lit chamber. The Chamber of the Aspects. Below, he could see his sister Alexstrasza and the other Wyrmrest Accord Ambassadors. She bent over a few black dragons who laid deathly still, breathing her healing fire upon them. Their bodies laid upon a bed of rich green grass and flowers bloomed all around them. But they showed no sign of awakening. The two dragons landed to Alexstrasza's opposite. She lifted her head and shook it with dismay.

"I cannot awaken them," she said.

"Has this spread to the other black dragon?" Kalecgos asked. He paused as he turned towards Siderion, Neltharion's newly appointed ambassador to the Wyrmrest Accord. The young black dragon was as still as the others. "What happened to them?"

"I don't know," she replied. "But…I…Siderion was…just fine barely an hour ago. He was talking to Chronormu. And then…"

"And then he completely dropped to the floor," said Chronormu, the Ambassador of the Bronze Dragonflight. The bronze dragon shook her head and her grassy colored eyes were downcast. "Poor kid."

"And the others?" Kalecgos asked.

"The same," said Alexstrasza.

_"Any word from Neltharion?" _Malygos asked.

"Oh, Neltharion is in the Blasted Lands," replied Chronormu. "Also knocked out."

"But he is not dreaming," said Itharius, the Green Dragonflight Ambassador. "Lady Ysera cannot see him in the Emerald Dream."

"I thought he was in Azuremyst Isle," said Kalecgos.

"He left there over a day ago," said Chronormu. "And headed for Karazhan."

"What was he doing in Karazhan?" asked Kalecgos.

"You know, maybe when he wakes up, you can ask him yourself, Kalec," said Chronormu, her rather cheery tone seemed off-putting to Kalecgos. It served to mask her concern for her fellow ambassador. She laid a brassy paw upon Siderion's rusty-black neck, giving it a gentle pat. For a moment, the young black dragon seemed to shift his breathing, letting loose a soft purr to indicate that he was aware of Chronormu's comforting touch.

"It can be safely assumed, Kalecgos," began Alexstrasza. "That what ever it is, which struck Neltharion, has also pilfered through his flight. Every black dragon, drake, whelp, dracinoid, and dragonspawn are all in this comatose state."

_"And possibly caused by whatever it was Neltharion found in Karazhan," _said Malygos. _"I wish he would have came to me before visiting that dreadful place. One of my own was killed all because of that madman!"_

"Medivh," said Alexstrasza. "The mortals' attempt to make a being as powerful as we are to combat the Burning Legion."

"Only because we all stood by and did nothing when they began their second attack nearly eight centuries ago," said Kalecgos. "They had no choice but to handle it themselves. And it only got worse with Sargeras' avatar showing up…and then taking control of Medivh to build the Dark Portal."

"Bringing the Horde here," said Itharius.

"Which brought the Dragonmaw here," said Alexstrasza. "And then…"

Malygos lowered his head when he heard the voice of his sister so heavy with morose. If he still had a stomach, he would be feeling sick to it by now. By the time the Dark Portal was finished and the First War had begun, Malygos was in the Nexus, drowning in his own madness. He mumbled about like a half-wit, whispering to himself about how he was going to get his revenge on Deathwing for killing most of his flight and causing his misery. Then, Alexstrasza was captured to be used as a breeding factory for the Horde to create their dragon riders. The Dragonmaw used the Demon Soul, created by Deathwing, to control her. Her own consort, Korialstrasz had to go into hiding in order to find a way to save his beloved mate. He gathered the aid of the other Aspects, Malygos being among them, who then all defeated the Black Scourge Deathwing, sending him flying with his tail between his legs to Deepholm. Krasus' friend and student Rhonin destroyed the Demon Soul and freed their powers.

But during that time, Malygos was still in his own maddened state. Even the events of that fight was cloudy in his mind. How much he wished he knew then what he knew now about Neltharion, about who and what Deathwing really was. The fight could have ended so much differently. They could have saved him then, their brother.

"Kalec," said Alexstrasza. "Regardless to what happened in the past…there is nothing we could do about it now. And even then, there was nothing. We couldn't come out of hiding, you know that as well as any of us. Not so long as the Demon Soul was whole."

"I know," said Kalecgos, lowering his head.

"You know," began Chronormu. "I hate to state the obvious, but if Neltharion is lying in the middle of one of the most hostile places on this rock, lying on that rock like a beached whale, wouldn't it be a good idea to send someone to bring him here?" She looked up at Kalecgos. "Someone with really good teleporting powers?"

"If the source of this problem is the Earth-Warder," began Itharius. "Then it would be prudent of us to bring him here and try to revive him."

"I suppose I could teleport him here…" said Kalecgos. He laid his eyes upon Malygos. "If you would come with me."

_"I would, but only if any of you would not object to me seeing Neltharion alone for a moment," _said Malygos. _"I maybe able to reach him."_

He heard a disapproving snort from Alexstrasza.

_"Do you wish to dispute my offer, dear sister?" _Malygos asked.

"Alone time with him, Malygos?" she asked. "What for? To poison him against us?"

_"What do you mean?"_

"I know what this is all about," said Alexstrasza. "I know what you intend to do…Neltharion is fragile, he doesn't need any more complications, or any other news to destroy his already weakened perception upon reality."

_"Nor does he need you hoarding him for yourself,"_ said Malygos. "_Smothering him until he suffocates. Why do you think he distances himself from you. Why do you think he's never came to you when he has a problem? All you do is constantly remind him what kind of failure he is. That you're Queen Perfect and he should be grateful to have you as his sister! Compassionate Alexstrasza, with one arm open, ready to embrace the masses, while the other arm conceals a dagger…ready to stab into someone's back. I know you've always been jealous of us, because of your attunement, you can't connect with him the way I can. But you wish you could. Oh how you wish you could."_

"Shut up!" Alexstrasza retorted. "Do you think you could be of any better help to him? Neltharion is reminded of his failures when you are around him also, because of your self-hating guilt over some paranoid and false belief that you were responsible for Neltharion's fall."

_"You're right, Alexstrasza," _said Malygos. _"The blame should not be placed solely upon me. If I am not mistaken, you had a hand in it as well."_

"Well, at least I tried to save him, even if it was a little late in the game," said Alexstrasza. "And I did succeed at least the second time. What did you do to save our brother? Did you seek out a way to bring him back? No! You sat and wallowed in your icy hole with your head between your legs, apathetic to your brother's cry. It took my beloved to even drag you out of that cave so that you might face Deathwing again. And you had nothing to say to him, nothing at all. So…I am not the only one who is guilty of abandoning our brother!"

_"Well, before I could even figure out what I could to save him, you had me killed."_

"Figure out?" Alexstrasza asked. "Is that what you did in the Nexus? I thought you were scheming to kill innocent people just for the crime of using magic! Or kidnap Keristrasza so you could brainwash her and rape her! Do you know what you also did? How about committing genocide upon Neltharion's flight."

_"You think I was the only one responsible for that? Look at what you did, Alexstrasza! You're pretty guilty of genocide yourself, you know. To both my flight and his! And for what reason? Your revenge for Deathwing stealing your eggs. And you killed my flight because they were trying to do their job!"_

"Oh, if you wish to go there," Alexstrasza began as she thundered towards the ghost. "Then let's go there. How about this, Former Spell-Weaver?" She thrusted her head to bear down upon Malygos' eyes. "If you would have done your job during the last ten thousand years, instead of pulling a Nozdormu and burying your head in the sand…maybe the Nexus War wouldn't have happened! But you decided to wallow in your own self-pity! You even shut out your own flight until you finally woke up and said: 'Hey, I'm late for work!' But by then the damage was done, and the only way you thought was right was to turn your flight into a bunch of fascist, xenocidal maniacs!"

_"You know, let's talk about Keristrasza for a moment," _Malygos said, leaning closer to the Life-Binder. _"Where were you when those mercenaries decided to raid the Nexus and put her down? Hmm? Tell me! Where were you, Alex?"_

Alexstrasza withdrew from him.

_"Were you there to see if you could remove my spells from her?" _Malygos asked. _"Or were you still here, letting those mortals kill her…and only receiving a note that the deed was done? Did you crawl into your lair and have a good cry after that? You want to remind me that I did nothing to save our brother. Then do so! Just remember, you did nothing to save a member of your own damned flight!"_

"Would you two just stop it for a moment!" Kalecgos bellowed, silencing them both.

Malygos had forgotten about Kalecgos at that moment, never realizing that the young Aspect had turned his head away as if he were listening to a voice that he could not hear. Kalecgos' crystalline spines glowed brightly as his anger and frustrations peeked, his lips trembling over his long, jagged teeth.

"I…got a message from Kirygosa," said Kalecgos. "She said that Jaina has returned with the Earthen Ring and they are currently slowing the volcano down. But they cannot contain it completely. She says that Go'el was there. He joined Nobundo and the others. And he brought someone with him."

"Who?" Alexstrasza asked.

"Another comatose black dragon. One called Dannathion. He was assigned to Baine Bloodhoof and the Thunder Bluff Clan on the orders of Neltharion himself. It was a token of mutual trust. Go'el came to Baine when none of the High Chieftain's shamans could summon Neltharion."

"Of course they wouldn't be able to summon him," said Itharius. "Neltharion is out cold just like the rest of his flight."

"So Go'el brought him with Jaina and Nobundo," said Kalecgos.

"Tell Kirygosa to bring Dannathion here," said Alexstrasza.

"Done."

_"They'll be here when we get back, Kalecgos," _said Malygos. _"You and I need to find Neltharion before this gets worse."_

"The Blasted Lands is a big place…"

_"And Neltharion is a big dragon," _said Malygos. _"He'd be the only dragon the size of a district of Stormwind lying in the middle of a red desert. Oh, and he's black! He'd stand out against all that red."_

"Right," said Kalecgos. "Easy to find."

"Good luck, both of you," said Alexstrasza.

Malygos only snorted at her blessing, growling in disgust as he and Kalecgos teleported away.


	5. Chapter 4

**章四**

**Chapter 4**

He could not recall just how long he had been away.

Was it a day?

Was it a week?

A month?

For the time spent there, all he saw was nothing. No voices, no sound. He could not see light. He could not touch, nor taste. Nor breathe. But he could feel one thing.

Cold.

It was everywhere.

As his eyes slowly and painfully opened, his head pounded with the beat of his heart. It ached. His ears rang and the light was blinding. He was so sensitive. Even the feel of the floor was too sharp for him to bare. Smells were vivid, agonizingly so vivid. He moaned as he awoke. Slowly, the sensitivity washed away when he smelled something familiar and comforting. His paws curled around something. He felt a weight upon his back, a head lying upon his neck. He heard breathing around him and felt the pressing of chests heaving in and out.

Neltharion slowly tilted his head up to find a black dragon lying beside him. He looked wearily up to see another black dragon. Then, he looked down. Pressed up against his abdomen were three whelps, warming themselves with the heat of his body. His flight was there, all fifty of them that were left who were loyal on this world. He touched the floor, feeling the vibrations of their breathing and rumbling. A drake flipped over to move to a more comfortable position at his tail.

He could not remember how he got here or why. The last he remembered was lying on a mesa in the Blasted Lands.

Though, to awaken with his flight around him brought dearly needed joy. However, the question remained, why were they here and not in Deepholm where he told them to remain. They were not safe here. They were not safe anywhere on this planet. Still, he rejoiced in their company. Neltharion softly nuzzled one of the black dragons lying, curled against the bend of his neck. The dragon was a male, and Neltharion recognized as his grandson, Serinar.

"Hmmm…just five more minutes…" Serinar whispered sleepily, pulling a wing over his head. He yawned. "Five more minutes…"

Neltharion softly chuckled and then turned to the next scent he smelled, another dragon lying against the nape of his neck. A female. Nameria. Her brother Siderion had a wing folded over her.

The Earth-Warder dared not move anymore. He did not want to disturb this wonderful scene to wake up to.

Neltharion closed his eyes, hoping that this moment would last forever. For the first time in months, he never felt so calm, glowingly warm, happy. He felt something flip over on his hip and he lifted his head again. He spied a little drake stretching and yawning, only to drip back to sleep again. The drake rested her head comfortably against his hipbone, licking the backs of her forepaws.

"That is…so adorable…" Neltharion heard a female voice whispering softly.

He could sense the vibrations of footfalls moving closer him and his huddled flight. As a foot came down, Neltharion was able to see the form of who approached him. It was dragon, a female. Another dragon came up from behind her followed by humanoids. Then, a much larger dragon walked behind the group. He recognized those footfalls. The large dragon was a female as well. The vibrations and sounds painted a black and white picture inside his mind of the large female. He could see the chain hanging from her chin, tipped with an opal. He could hear her heartbeat adding to the image the vibrations sent him.

_Alexstrasza…_

He would hate to disturb their slumber, hated to break up a moment he rarely had with his flight. All of them huddled against his massive form, finding comfort in embracing him. Neltharion could feel his tears well up in his lids, tears of happiness, but tears of longing and sorrow. He never wanted to move again, not from being the center of his loving flight. He wanted to just stay, stay and nuzzle his flight. He shut his eyes and a sob escaped his mouth.

_"Neltharion," _he heard a soft voice say. _"Neltharion…"_

"Malygos?" Neltharion whispered as he opened his eyes up. Silvery lines of salty ears trailed down his cheeks. "Malygos…I don't wanna leave them."

_"I know."_

Neltharion could see the radiant, shimmering, transparent form of Malygos as the phantom lowered closer to his brother.

_"This…brings back so many memories," _he said. _"But…we need to talk…"_

Neltharion closed his eyes again and felt himself blending with the rocky ground underneath him. Lower and lower he went, slowly so he would not disturb his slumbering flight. Once he had cleared them, the Aspect swam through the rocks beneath their feet only to rise up again, higher and higher until he towered over the others. Neltharion stood, taking a slow, deep breath and stretched his wings. The sudden rush to his head and his eyes were filled with flashing gold, green, and red stars. He nearly doubled over, bracing himself against his forelegs. He panted and moved to lay against a rock. His head ached and swam. He was dizzy and the world spun all around him in two different directions.

"What happened?" he asked softly. "Why…do I feel so ill?"

_"I was hoping you'd tell me," _said Malygos.

"Neltharion," said Alexstrasza. "We all need to talk…"

_"Alex, you promised," _said Malygos. _"Just give me a moment with him alone. I'll get your answers."_

"What?" Neltharion asked, confused with Malygos' hardened tone.

_"Don't stress yourself, little brother…" _said Malygos.

"Very well," said Alexstrasza. "Have your moment. But I would like to talk to him next."

_"And I'm sure he has questions he'd like you to answer as well, sister," _said Malygos. _"Come on, Neltharion."_

They moved away from the group and Neltharion could now get a clearer view of his surroundings. He was in a rocky valley with an orange glow blanketing the starless sky. All around him were jagged rocks and signs of volcanic activity. Pools of lava crusted with thin sheets of black rock darted the landscape. Off in the distance, he saw a fiery ball explode against the face of a rugged mountain. Near an overhanging, he spied a few broken black dragon egg shells. He knew where he was. This was the Obsidian Sanctum. The Obsidian Sanctum was a small pocket dimension created for the purpose of protecting black dragon eggs and where black dragons could meet in solace. This was where many times Neltharion had taken his consorts to in order to mate with them. Here, they could lay their eggs in safety. The five Dragonflights had their own sanctum where they would lay eggs and care for the young. Sanctums were also a place of healing and rest for dragons and their Aspects.

Neltharion knew Alexstrasza practically lived in the Ruby Sanctum when she was not upon the temple. Though he never really lived in his all the time.

Each of the previous Sanctums had been destroyed by Krasus when he discovered the eggs were corrupted and turned into chromatic dragons. He destroyed them to keep the illness from spreading. After the Cataclysm, the Sanctums were rebuilt along with the restoration of the Wyrmrest Temple. Each of the Aspects reformed their respective Sanctum, once more placing them in their protective pocket dimensions. Neltharion chose again to have his looking like a volcanic field, but this time as a representation of where life would spring up from the heat of the planet, rather than it being a representation of death and destruction. Lava flows meant new land was being made, land for which life shall come to rest upon. The gasses rising from the vents were rich in minerals to feed that life. The volcanic landscape was a way the planet showed that it was alive and active. Not cold and dead.

Malygos finally came to a stop, having led his brother away to a secluded outcropping of rock. Neltharion wearily laid down, bracing his head against a smooth boulder and rumbled a sigh.

"My…head hurts…" he said with a pained whisper. "What happened? Did…I drink too much again?"

_"No," _said Malygos.

Neltharion huffed and lifted his head slightly: "I see…you're looking better since the last time I saw you."

_"I've healed much," _said Malygos. _"But that mana bomb still took a lot out of me. I haven't fully recovered yet. But I will. Then I won't need to return to the Nexus anymore. I can keep you company all day and all night. I can help you even look after the little ones of your flight when you are away healing the world. Once I am better."_

"You'd look after my flight?" Neltharion asked. "Why…would you do that?"

_"Because I am your brother and I love you," _said Malygos. _"I…want you to be happy…not to worry anymore. I can't bare to see you always so…stressed…"_

"I wasn't this stressed…this…shaken before Garrosh pulled that…stunt of his…" said Neltharion. The ground started trembling with his growl. "And then Calia…Calia…"

He shut his eyes, fighting back the pain as he thought about her.

"Do you know what she did?" he asked.

_"No, what did she do?"_

"She asked Varian to sign an annulment that makes our marriage…non-existent," Neltharion said, chewing upon his lip. "She said because of abuse…neglect…because of…both me and Deathwing. She's not my wife anymore, she was never my wife."

_"She is not your Prime Consort either,"_ said Malygos. _"I was mistaken to think that girl would…be someone to give you love and companionship. It was a relationship born out of…a sinister plot. Those…never work."_

Neltharion sobbed again, raising a claw to scratch a line into the rock. Malygos raised his paw and placed it upon his brother's shoulder.

_"You will find someone…Neltharion," _he said. _"Someone who can love you…no matter who or what you are. Calia can't give you whelplings."_

"It was never about whelplings," said Neltharion. "I…love her. She crushed me. She called it a fairytale. She said I was never the handsome prince she thought I was when she was…younger."

_"I am sorry she broke your heart," _said Malygos. _"But you do have others who love you. I'm one of them. And I will not abandon you."_

He laid his head upon Neltharion's shoulder.

_"I will never abandon my brother again," _he said.

Neltharion winced upon those words, remembering something similar from the vision in Karazhan. He could not help but to think about Malygos sitting alone in the Nexus nearly seven years ago, justifying the Nexus War as a means to correct the wrongs he did towards Neltharion. He remembered Malygos blaming himself for consorting with Alexstrasza to defeat Deathwing, and how awful he felt. Neltharion remembered what Malygos said in Orgrimmar as well.

* * *

_I wept not because Deathwing killed my flight time and time again, I wept because I knew what was happening to the one person on this world that I loved more than anything else. I knew what was destroying him from the inside out. I heard it, the cries, the pleads. I heard him, through the Song we shared together. He wept and he was so alone and I turned my back on him!_

_It was only now in my death, alone, cold, in the Nexus, did I not see how blind I was. I heard it, your warning. I heard it. You tried to tell me. You tried. I heard the Song be filled with so much pain, so much sorrow, so much…humiliation. And I let it happen, Neltharion, I let it happen to you. I have wronged you, my brother. I was not there when you needed me the most. I was not there when Azeroth needed its Spell-Weaver the most. I failed you, I failed Norgannon, I failed Azeroth._

* * *

The war between the Black and Blue Dragonflights in Crystalsong Forest, Malygos blamed himself for that as well.

_"Never again…"_ Malygos whispered.

Neltharion extended his titanic wing and folded it over his brother.

"We…all make mistakes," said Neltharion, turning his head to rest his chin upon his brother's head. "We are not perfect, no matter how much the mortals expect us to be. Even that is a curse upon us. But…no one expects me to be perfect…only to fail over and over…to give them reason why I should never have been saved."

_"No," _said Malygos. _"I won't have my brother say that…"_

"I am the one who nearly slaughtered all of your flight all because you were trying to stop me," said Neltharion. "I should have just let you kill me ten thousand years ago."

_"Neltharion, please…"_

"The Black Scourge. Isn't that what you named me after the fact?"

_"I am sorry for naming you so," _he said. _"I'm sorry…"_

"I'm sorry I took away Sindragosa from you," said Neltharion. His eyes narrowed as he felt the poison of his sorrow spread through his heart. "I took her from you…only for her to be used by…my…ex-brother-in-law…I stole her…ripped her away…I am such a horrible monster for doing that. My beloved Sintharia…I deserved losing her because of what I have done to you."

Malygos slid away, his vaporous body floating like a sheet of shimmering light over the black rock. Neltharion toppled from the rock, curling up. He brought his tail between his legs and wrapped himself tightly with his own wings. He gritted his teeth as that noise started again, drumming in his head with its awful sound.

_"Neltharion, what is wrong?" _Malygos asked.

Neltharion could not speak, his mouth frozen in a silent scream, his eyes shut tightly. The sickening melody crescendoed, ringing in his ears. His senses were crushed by the onslaught of another tsunami wave of sensations he could not bring himself to say what or why. In his mind's eyes, he saw that land again, the one with the terrifying sound, and the mist that struck him when he reached out for it. He could see the eyes again of those creatures looking upon him.

Neltharion felt the cool, ghostly paw of Malygos bringing him back from the the encroaching darkness the deceptive cadence created.

_"What is hurting you?" _Malygos asked. _"How can I help?"_

Without a word, Neltharion again opened his wings up to his brother. Malygos floated in and the Great Black's wings folded around him. The former Spell-Weaver held him close, laying his head upon Neltharion's crown. Neltharion gave into the embrace. His brother was chasing away the monsters that invaded his mind.

"A land…" Neltharion replied. "A land at the South Pole. Covered in mists. I…went to Karazhan to find out what Nalice was searching for, to find answers about this Black Prince. What I found was a jar of dirt from this…land…and monsters made of black, toxic vapor reaching out for me. They…they were the ones who drove me into darkness."

_"They attacked you and that's why you blacked out?" _

"No, not yet," he said. "I saw a vision…several visions…in Karazhan. The first, green fire raining down from the sky. Infernals, Malygos. I heard…his voice…the Dark Titan's voice. It sounded exactly like mine! I…don't know why…but the vision, the vision showed me what maybe our future. The Burning Legion…they are going to return. Velen was right, Malygos. Kil'Jaeden was defeated, not destroyed. N'Zoth was defeated, not destroyed. The Burning Legion can always return. The Hour of Twilight may still fall…"

_"Good gracious…" _Malygos breathed with fear tingling his voice.

"Just like Krasus," said Neltharion. "Velen said the Sight…to see the future…it was not limited to just a few. Anyone can have it. I saw them coming."

_"And what else?"_

"The land to the south," said Neltharion. "It was sick. I left Karazhan to…meditate…I suppose…to reach out and touch this continent in the south. So I did from the Blasted Lands. I found a barrier around it. I tried looking at it from underneath and the barrier was blocking my vision…even all the way through the crust. So, I tried to rip the barrier off. Instead, it bit back."

_"And that is why you blacked out," _said Malygos. _"This barrier rebuked you and sent that tremor through your entire flight. It must have trickled into the very crust of the world through your flight's attunement and that's what caused the earthquakes."_

"But back in Karazhan," said Neltharion. "There was another vision. I saw myself, I think. He stood in a room of ornate carvings of golden…serpent creatures. Crimson red curtains and languages that looked like hatch markings written in heavy black ink and painted with a brush. It was in the land to the south. He kept saying: 'If I give them what they want, would they leave me be?' I know those words. I've spoken those words before. It's what I asked many times when the Old Gods tried to control me."

_"Give them what they want," _said Malygos. _"Create Deathwing to do their bidding…"_

"Yes," said Neltharion. "My shame in my desperate hope to lesson the torment. Make a personality they know would do those horrible things they wanted me to do…"

_"And this room…"_ said Malygos. _"I know it from somewhere…and the land to the south…I wonder if the people there were large, bear-like creatures who spoke and have white bodies with black markings on their ears, faces, and arms. Pandarens. Pandaria…Neltharion! You found the lost land of Pandaria. In the south were these bear-like creatures. They were sentient, intelligent. They were once slaves to stone giant-like creatures called the Mogu, but they rose up and overthrew them."_

"Pandaria?"

_"I thought that land sank when the Sundering happened," _said Malygos. _"My memory is a bit fuzzy on the details, but I do recall that land. The room you were in…I have been there myself. We both have. We used to visit Pandaria. Something else I remember about that place too…something…special about it…but it has been so long. Ten thousand years to be exact. That was the last time we saw Pandaria. Then the Sundering happened. But you found it. So it never sank after all. But this barrier you speak of. I don't remember there ever being a barrier around Pandaria."_

"It's what I found," said Neltharion. "Malygos, there's something in that land, something horrible. I…feel the need to go down there. The jar that had that creature in it. It reeked of Old God taint. The Song of the World, that horrible noise I heard, it's being caused by those things. And it is the same sour note I hear whenever I sense Old God corruption in the land."

_"Do not let me stop you," _said Malygos. _"This is absolutely fascinating. Wonderful even. We've found a land that we thought we lost. I'm quite curious of it myself. Especially about this barrier that knocked you out. Who created it and for what purpose? Why block Pandaria…why isolate it from the rest of the world like that?"_

"Maybe it has to do with those monsters I sensed down there," said Neltharion. "The Old God taint. A failsafe the Titans installed in case something happened to Pandaria…like the Sundering."

_"I would think they would entrust that sort of thing to you, Neltharion," _said Malygos. _"You are the warden of their cages after all. But I do not recall an Old God resting in Pandaria."_

"It's there," said Neltharion. "I felt it. These creatures…whatever they are…they might work for it."

_"What did they look like?" _asked Malygos.

"Creatures of black smoke with two pairs of eyes," he replied. "Skeletal…head, a ribcage, long, gangly arms. Rest of the body looked like it was made of a column of black smoke…suffocating smoke. They crawled on crab-like legs. They…seemed to feed off of me…somehow. I felt drained when they did. One of them entered my mouth, made me…feel…hopelessness. And then blinding rage. Frozen fear. And they fed off of that." Neltharion lifted his head to his brother. "You don't happen to know what they are, do you?"

_"For the life of me…or death…"_ Malygos began. _"I haven't the faintest idea. I don't recall ever seeing such monsters before. They sound absolutely terrifying."_

"The sounds they made, the smell, they are very much like the Old Gods. And it is the same sound I heard coming from the south. From…Pandaria."

_"I remember Pandaria. I remember going there. But I don't remember giant smoke monsters that fed off of negative emotion. But there is something I do remember. You found Pandaria to be…rather intriguing. Especially when you told me about the giant mountain range you built! You were so proud of it."_

"Mountains?"

_"The tallest mountains in all of Azeroth!"_ Malygos said. _"Taller than the Redridge Mountains. Taller than the Stonetalon Peaks. Taller than Mt. Hyjal! Their peaks were tall and their roots deep, that is what you said. You pushed those mountains up with your very back. They were so high that any mortal daring to climb to the tallest peak, they would asphyxiate and die. There's no air up there…at least not enough to breathe. The peak was so high, no cloud could touch it. The sky was always blue. You called the mountains…Rekilmtreski. I think the Pandaren called them something else. Some…silly name…Kampai or something…"_

"The Roof of the World?" Neltharion asked.

_"Yes, that's what it means," _said Malygos. _"You were so happy there. You said that every river flowed to Pandaria and emptied into the World Ocean from the South Pole."_

Neltharion sighed and laid his head back down on the rock.

"I really need to get down there," he said.

_"I certainly will not stand in your way," _said Malygos. _"And I would love to join you. After all, Pandaria has been hiding even when I was still an Aspect. I would like to know how they managed to cloak that entire continent and kept it cloak for ten thousand years. And why did they do it."_

"Malygos…"

_"Don't tell me, you don't want me to follow you."_

Neltharion slid from the rock, slowly and wearily walking away. His head lowered, his shoulders haunched over, trying as best as he might to make himself look smaller than he really was. He did not want Malygos to come with him. He did not want Malygos to be hurt anymore than he already was. The calculated error of having his breakable ghostly brother with him in Theramore only became apparent when Garrosh sent the Mana Bomb to destroy it. Everywhere Neltharion went, his loved ones would either get harmed, or leave him. He felt comforting cool touch of his brother's phantom paw as Malygos touched him upon the shoulder. Neltharion gave in and leaned into Malygos' embrace. The ghostly blue dragon folded his wings around his brother as best as he could.

_"It's alright," _said Malygos. _"It's alright. I don't have to go. Besides…I'm…still trying to heal myself and…well…the Nexus needs some repairs…I can help out with that…"_

Neltharion jerked up: "What happened to the Nexus?"

_"It…uh…well…"_ Malygos began as he pulled himself away from the Earth-Warder. _"Neltharion, it is alright. And it isn't anything that you should concern yourself with."_

"Malygos…"

_"Alright, when that barrier struck you down…" _he began. _"It…caused an earthquake and…made the volcano active again."_

Neltharion exhaled, his eyes widen: "I should…"

_"No, it's alright," _he said. _"It's all better now. The moment we gathered you and your flight up…and all of you showed signs of coming around, Kirygosa reported that the volcano stopped. It has gone back to sleep again. And we are safe. Whatever happened, it's that barriers fault and not yours. So…go down there, find out about Pandaria so something like this won't happen again. Continents shouldn't knock you out all of a sudden when you reach out and touch them. It never did it before when you went down there and molded the land. Something is wrong with that continent and it is the Earth-Warder's duty to find out what it is. The…Blue Dragonflight is counting on you. That continent has something dangerous in it and it hurt my flight. But you…you did nothing. You did as you should. You must have instinctually knew that barrier was wrong and you tried to remove it. It's just that it fought back and did that to the Nexus. It didn't want you to find out what it is concealing. All the more reason why you need to go!"_

Neltharion relaxed his shoulders and lowered his head, bobbing up and down in agreement.

_"Let me see if I can…sense anything with the leylines down there," _said Malygos.

"Are you sure you can?"

_"I may not be the Aspect of Magic anymore. But that doesn't mean I don't have some connection…if it is strong enough, I should be able to sense it."_

The ghost settled down, closing his eyes as he began to concentrate. Malygos let loose a frustrated grunt and shook his head.

_"I…can't feel anything," _he said. _"Wait…Neltharion, come here. Let me listen to your heartbeat."_

Neltharion moved in closer, taking in a deep breath as Malygos pressed his head against his deep, tremendous chest. Neltharion extended his wings again and wrapped them around the ghostly dragon. He knew this was familiar some how, what they were doing. He felt warmer than he ever did, a glow of comfort as his own power slowly began to meld with Malygos'. Though, something seemed off about it, Neltharion could not determine what. He knew the connection was supposed to be stronger, much stronger than it is now. As he closed his eyes, he could feel the play of energy dance across his scales. He felt whole for the very first time in many years as he and his brother blended with each other.

Neltharion breathed in and out, listening to the beat of his own heart just as Malygos was listening. His body became entangled with the rock beneath him and he dragged the ghost down with him. Even from within the Obsidian Sanctum, they could hear the melodic, shimmering Song of the world. It was a harmony of two voices, the world and the magical leylines that streaked across it. As he began to listen in, his mind was a flood of strange and distant memories.

He imagined himself much younger, leaner, sleeker, than he was now. The amethyst crystals adorning his head and back. His very being interwoven with Malygos, their essence merged into one. Their flight shared this bond, blue and black all meshed together, embracing each other as they strengthened the roots of the planet itself and the shimmering curtain of the magnetic field which protected it. High above in the sky, the aurora beamed with bright scintillation, a rejoicing apotheosis of the two flights' union. Neltharion smiled, seeing the two lovely forms of both Sintharia and Sindragosa also holding to the bond and sharing with the glow of euphoric love. They were beautiful together, all four of them. Inseparable.

Two stark, heated, burning red eyes stared back at them as a gnarled hand lashed out to slash them apart. Neltharion saw the monster, a hideous black dragon with armor upon his back and its lower jaw protected by a large metallic brace. Lava leapt out and burned away both Sindragosa and Sintharia. The maw of the world opened up to swallow the rest of the two flights.

Deathwing would not allow them to be this happy ever again.

Neltharion tore himself away from Malygos, as his mind was brought back to that harsh and cold reality. He hunched over again, wrapping his wings around his form, their long, spiny digits clinging knuckle white as he desperately tried to protect himself from reality. Those wonderful memories that he was able to see for the first time in thousands of years. They brought him joy, only for that horrible monster he became to shatter it. He threw himself upon the black rock, his talons raking furrows into the surface.

_"Oh, Neltharion, I am so sorry!" _he heard Malygos call out. _"I hurt you…I didn't mean to hurt you…"_

Neltharion lifted his head and looked upon his brother. Malygos's head was lowered, shame weighing down upon his shoulders. His wings drooped.

"You…didn't hurt me…" he said. "It was Deathwing. I…just remembered something…we did that…a lot, didn't we? Our flight did it as well. We weren't two flights back then. It was like we were one. And I saw Sintharia and Sindragosa. They too were like us. It was beautiful." He let a tear drop from his eyes. "But then Deathwing destroyed it all. He took it away. He took everything away. I hate him for what he did to us. He made me tear apart something that was…precious and wonderful. And then he shat upon it." Neltharion's head buried itself upon the rock. "He took it all away. He destroyed who we are and he made our flights hate each other. He made us fight each other when we should have been like we were. He destroyed that beauty."

_"That…beauty," _began Malygos. _"What you saw in that memory, was how you and I protected this world. That evil creature knew what he was doing when he tore us both apart. He wanted this world to return like it was before the Titans came. Turn it into this…world of death and chaos. That's what he wanted. We were close, Neltharion. You and I."_ He paused and Neltharion could see his face twist slightly in disgust._ "You and Alexstrasza as well. She…needed your council more than ever. Because you knew what was best for this world. You painted the canvas in which Alexstrasza and Ysera could fill with life and nature."_

"You don't sound like you wanted to say that."

_"It's…my own…personal problem, Neltharion," _Malygos said with a heavy sigh. _"I don't want you to concern yourself over my…silly affairs right now. You have other things to worry about. All the Aspects have something to worry about. Pandaria. Its existence and why it…feels the way it does. Why it feels so wrong. I felt it when I melded with your heart. Not as strong as I could like long ago, but I knew what I was searching for and that guided me. The leylines down there appeared to have been dammed up, or diverted. I am only ashamed that I never saw it before…before my death. That barrier is the cause for the disturbance in the leylines. I just need to now how damage they are."_

"I wonder how extensive the damage has been for Pandaria," said Neltharion.

_"That all depends on when that barrier went up," _said Malygos. _"But…the problem is since the Sundering, I've been…well…"_

"Maybe Alexstrasza knows," said Neltharion, though the mentioning of his sister's name was like a bite of spite upon his tongue. He swiftly shook it off. "However, I saw the barrier myself with my own eyes as I was flying. It looks like a mist covering the whole continent. I can guess they haven't seen the sun in ten thousand years."

Malygos' vaporous, glistening form paced back and forth in deep thought as Neltharion watched him intently. He watched him, though deep inside, he rejoiced that his brother was acting a little more like himself. He even sparkled a bit more than usual as he paced. For Malygos, it was because at last, he was feeling useful again.

_"You are Alexstrasza's advisor," _said Malygos. _"Her right hand, as it were. I think what needs to be done is you advising that she needs to call a meeting of the Aspects to discuss Pandaria."_

"And then watch her attempt to chain me up the moment she finds out I intend to go down there by myself," said Neltharion. "No thank you!"

_"Neltharion…"_

"You know how she is," he said. "She wants to…have me bound so I wouldn't stub my toe, or poke out my eye just by walking from Wyrmrest to the Obsidian Dragonshrine. If she had scissors, she'd lock them up too because she would be afraid that I'd run around the place with them. She wants to baby-proof everything I touch, put me in some glass ball or put me in a padded cell. If she had her way, my talons would be filed down until they were rounded and dull and my teeth would be flattened. She believes that I might hurt myself if I breathe the outside air."

Neltharion came to his feet and started hobbling away.

"You go tell her everything I told you about Pandaria and I'll sneak out the back while she's not looking,"he said. "I'll be half way to Pandaria before she realizes I'm gone."

_"Neltharion," _said Malygos. _"Is that any way an Aspect is supposed to act?"_

The Great Black swung his head around and let loose a ground trembling growl.

"She doesn't see me as an Aspect," he said. "I'm her little whelpling she needs to keep in the bed so she can feed soup to and dress up. She locked me inside my own Shrine! With my dead children, Malygos! What kind of twisted, sick, demented bitch would do that to her own brother?!"

_"Neltharion," _began Malygos. _"We both blame ourselves for Deathwing. We both feel it was our fault Deathwing existed. The difference is that she has a different way of…coping with it. But running off is no way of showing her that you can take charge of what you do and who you are. Running away isn't what an Aspect is supposed to do. And it is something even I have to swallow now as well. Because that's what I did when…Deathwing blasted me with the Demon Soul. I ran away when my flight needed me the most. When my brother needed me the most. I ran away. And she really did try to help you…in her own way. She just didn't know how she could, or what she could do. She just didn't understand. I think Alexstrasza was the only one of us that actually made an attempt to help you. Even after what happened to her with the Dragonmaw, even after Deathwing stole her eggs to make Twilight Dragons. She tried. She just didn't know how to reach you."_

"She still gave up," said Neltharion, his lip lifting into a snarl at the ghostly dragon. "It took Thrall reaching in and touching my heart to discover the truth. And she loves to parade the fact that she was the one who saved me, Malygos. She wasn't the one who saved me. It was Thrall…Go'el. It was one mortal. One mortal did what the Queen of Life could not do."

_"You're right, brother," _said Malygos, shrinking back from Neltharion's hard and abrasive words. _"One mortal did what _none_ of the Aspects could do. We've all failed you then. And for that, we all deserved what Deathwing did to us."_

Then, the ghost floated away, leaving Neltharion to reflect upon his words. The Earth-Warder settled down on the ground. He lifted a paw and began to dig a small hole with his talon. Then, he stared at the hole. He sighed and got back up, leaving the hole where it was. Neltharion followed the path of a river of lava back towards where his flight was. He saw them, all of them rousing from their sleep. He smiled softly upon seeing the two young, three-month old whelplings tumble about as they chased each other around. They were hatched from the eggs Serinar saved from Theramore. He saw one whelpling dart behind the foreleg of Nameria. The young female lifted her paw and the other two whelplings chased the first again.

Serinar looked up and Neltharion's smile broaden.

"Hey, gramps!" he called.

"I…wanted to make sure you were alright," said Neltharion.

"Never better," said Serinar. "Except for that massive hangover I just had. Did some of us party a bit too hard? You know you've had a really good time if you can't remember a single bit of it."

Neltharion chuckled: "Yeah. I know how that feels. Been there, a lot. Listen, I…ya…I have a meeting to go to. Aspect business, you know."

"Has something happened, my lord?" Siderion asked.

"Sid, what did I tell you?" Neltharion.

"Oh, sorry, grandfather, has something happened?"

"Oh, nothing special," said Neltharion, dipping his head down. He grinned cheek to cheek and puffed his chest out. "Except your…great leader over here discovered a new land that's been lost for ten thousand years."

"Well, I'll be damned," said Serinar. "The Earth-Warder is finally doing his job!"

"That's wonderful, grandfather," said Siderion.

"Are we going to this new land?" Ruthian asked.

"Um…yes, soon," said Neltharion. "But not at this moment. I…uh…need to head down there myself and see if it's safe."

"I get it, we're in the way…" said Serinar. "Again."

"No!" said Neltharion. "No, it's not that. Look, I'm trying to be a good leader here…when I know I fail at that miserably. But this time, I want to make sure the land is safe before I bring you all with me. And I can take the punishment, that's what I'm here for. I'll see if it's safe, if it's not…I'll smash some heads in until it is safe. Then I will send for you. Besides, this land maybe a possible new home for us. Since our last home was…destroyed by the Horde. It's better than Deepholm."

"I hope so," said Serinar. "Before we blacked out, I had to go chase around another one of Therezane's kids. They…mushroomed your temple again."

"Mushroomed my temple?" Neltharion asked.

"You know, the Temple of Earth is the temple to you…" said Serinar. "Your actual home."

"Yes, I know that. Even if I hate that place. I know it's my…real home. But what do you mean her kid mushroomed my house?"

"Well if they had chicken eggs, they would have egged your house, Nel," said Serinar. "But you know those mushrooms that started sprouting all over the place in Deepholm because of the Cataclysm?"

"Yeah."

"Well, some of her giant stone kids grabbed a few, the slimy ones especially, and vandalized your temple with them," he replied. "No the place stinks like…bath mildew and…very…very stinky mushrooms. It smells like fungus, Neltharion! Really stinky fungus!"

"Therazane's kids vandalized my actual house with mushrooms," said Neltharion. He let loose a frustrating sigh. "Alright. When I'm done with this new land, I'm coming down there and I will personally break her spine. How's that for trying to be a leader and protecting my flight from…vandalizing rock people?"

"Sounds good to me," said Serinar. The other black dragons nodded.

He dipped his head in parting and made his way towards the stone gate leading out of the Obsidian Sanctum.


	6. Chapter 5

**章五**

**Chapter 5**

He came out flying over a vast, featureless cavern, a perfect sphere for which he flew inside of. The Chamber of Aspects, where the Aspects themselves met. Below, he could see Alexstrasza sitting with Kalecgos, both in their dragon forms. His keen eyes saw Go'el and Jaina sitting down along with Chronormu and Itharius. However, Malygos was not with Kalecgos.

He banked and softly landed, his great weight trembling the floor just slightly. Alexstrasza came out slowly and dipped her head in greeting.

"I am glad you are better, dear Neltharion," she said. "You had all of us worried."

"Yes, we are all much better, thank you," he said. "Sister. And I have discovered why we all blacked out. It came from the south. A barrier that blocks my sight and tried to rebuke not only myself, but my entire flight. The earthquakes that damaged the Nexus and caused the Obsidian Dragonshrine volcano to erupt were shockwaves that were sent through my connection with Azeroth's Heart…caused by this barrier. The barrier was not supposed to be there and my attempt to remove it from the South Pole created the quakes and aftershocks."

"Barrier?" Alexstrasza asked. "What barrier?"

Neltharion took in a deep breath and puffed his chest out. Glowing, newly healed splits glowed dully red under the scales and pulsed with the beat of his heart.

"My duty as Earth-Warder requires me to know every land, every continent that exists upon this planet," he said. "Since the Sundering broke up one massive supercontinent…into four pieces."

"Did you say four, Neltharion?" Go'el asked as he rose from his seat. "You never told me there were four continents."

Neltharion slowly moved towards the tiny World Shaman as gently as he could.

"Because of my…fractured memory, I did not recall there were four continents until now," said Neltharion. "And…"

"We all thought that after the Sundering, there were only three," said Alexstrasza. "What is this fourth continent you found?"

"I have reason to believe that I found the long lost land of Pandaria."

"Pandaria!" The Life Queen gasped, holding a ruby paw to her chest. "The Southern Tip of Old Kalimdor itself. We…haven't seen it in…"

"Ten thousand years," said Neltharion.

"Even we Aspects thought Pandaria had sank during the Sundering," she said.

"I seem to remember you mentioning Pandaria once, Alexstrasza," said Kalecgos. "During the Third War."

"Yes, I suggested that there were sacred jewels of Pandaria that could help possibly revive the Sunwell," she said. "But as I said before, Pandaria had been lost since the Sundering. There was no hope of ever going there and finding them."

"I found it," said Neltharion. "And it was the cause of my blackout. The barrier is around Pandaria. I don't know who or what put it there, but it may be the reason why we all thought Pandaria was lost. We couldn't see it. The barrier blocked it from our sight, my sight!"

Go'el took in a deep, thoughtful breath and nodded. Neltharion leaned his great head down to the shaman.

"You know something, don't you, Thrall?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," he said.

"Garrosh?"

"Yes. I'm afraid you're not the only one who found this Pandaria. Garrosh has as well. Trusted people that I know close to Garrosh's council informed me that his ships were lost in a storm fighting the Alliance in the south seas beyond the Maelstrom. A trade route dispute. They came across a land and some of Garrosh's Dark Shaman made the attempt to see if their landing could be detected by you. They discovered that they could not hear your Song anywhere on that shore. A land where the Earth-Warder could not touch the Horde, Garrosh called it. And because of the Theramore supervolcano, the cooling of the climate in the Barrens, the fact that the Barrens have been turned into a volcanic field unsuited for farming, and what he lost in the tsunami at Booty Bay, Garrosh is taking his chances south."

"Varian as well," said Jaina. "I suppose since it is out…um…" She eyed Go'el suspiciously, thinking back to what happened three months ago. Though Thrall had not betrayed her personally, it still stung her heart to think that he did nothing to stop the warmongering Garrosh Hellscream from destroying her beloved city and killing her people. "I do not feel comfortable in divulging information to…"

"I understand, Jaina," said Go'el. "But know this. I have no intention of giving Hellscream anything that would fuel his dishonorable trek any further. But if you cannot trust that, then so be it."

"I know what I can trust," she said. "The best polygraph machine ever built." She tilted her head towards the Earth-Warder. "Neltharion, is he telling the truth or is he lying?"

Neltharion inhale deeply and paused just for a fraction of a second. He looked down upon Jaina and said with utter flat sincerity: "He's telling the truth."

"Really?"

"Jaina, Thrall has a piece of me inside his heart," he said. "I'd know if he was lying or not because of that piece."

"Alright," she said, turning back to Go'el. "Anduin is missing."

"Anduin?" Go'el asked. "What happened?"

"His ship was traveling to Azuremyst Isle to visit Velen and…as Anduin put it: 'I am going to cheer up the Earth-Warder'," she said.

Neltharion snorted a chuckled: "He wanted to visit me and cheer me up? I swear, he is the greatest kid in the world. That kid is going to be a great king one day. Ten times better than his father, that's certain."

"Well, it was caught in a storm in the south seas, fought Horde ships," she said. "The same ones you spoke of, Thrall. And that was the last we heard of him."

"He's on Pandaria too," said Neltharion. "Oh no. Anduin is on Pandaria."

"Why is that bad?" Jaina asked. "Aside from having to deal with the Horde? Why is that worse than the Horde?"

"I have reason to believe Pandaria might be infected with Old Gods," said Neltharion. "Much like how Northrend is. But worse."

"Old Gods are in this Pandaria?" Go'el asked.

"I think."

"You think?" Alexstrasza asked. "What sort of Old Gods are down there, Neltharion?"

"I don't know," Neltharion said. "But I heard the same sour song they tend to produce. It's the sound they make through the rock."

"I know what he's going about," said Go'el. "Thanks to Neltharion's tutelage, I have heard it as well. It is a horrible sound."

"I have also seen visions," he said. "Of creatures made of smoke, as big as me. With skeletal arms and heads, four white eyes, and crab legs."

Jaina ran her hand through her silver hair and then touched her chin.

"Four white eyes and crab legs…" she whispered. "Thrall?"

"That stain glass window in Ulduar," said Go'el. "Do you remember it, Jaina?"

"How could I forget?" she asked. "I can remember after we swept through Ulduar to make sure Yogg-Saron was put to bed, Brann was poking around and found seven stain glass windows with smoke monsters that had four white eyes. And a statue of some sort of seven-headed…elephant creature…"

"Jaina?" Kalecgos asked, bending his great, blue head down to her. "You never told me about this."

"I'm sorry, Kalec," she said. "It never was brought up in conversation. And Brann, Varian, Thrall, and I kinda made a pact not to speak of what we found when we went there." She turned back to Neltharion. "In fact, it was those windows and that statue that led Brann south to Uldum where you and Calia found him two years ago in the Halls of Organization."

"And where I went crazy and destroyed that place," said Neltharion. "After Deathwing tried to take control of me. It's where I ripped off that metallic chin brace from my lower mandible."

"Well, his quests continue," said Jaina. "And it has led him south as well. He went on another ship accompanying Anduin's ship that was lost."

"But these stain glass windows you found in Ulduar," began Neltharion. "The Titans built Ulduar, they must have left those windows in place as a message about these creatures."

"Are these smoke creatures Old Gods, Neltharion?" Alexstrasza asked.

"I don't know," he said, his tone laced with deep worry. "They smell like Old Gods. Their song is very much like the Old Gods. But they do not act like Old Gods. Not like N'Zoth or the others."

"Jaina, could you take me to this place where you found those windows?" Kalecgos asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Neltharion, did you want to go too?"

"No," said Neltharion. "The further away I distance myself from Ulduar, the better. Just because you and a bunch of adventurers knocked Yogg-Saron unconscious again, doesn't mean he isn't still active in a way. I can hear his slimy voice all the way from here. Besides, I plan on going down there myself and see Pandaria…see what happened to it after the Sundering."

He heard a rejecting low growl from Alexstrasza.

"You don't want me to go down there?"

"I don't want you to get hurt, Neltharion," she said. "You already were harmed just by trying to reach out and remove that barrier. Who knows what could happen to you if you physically go down there yourself. And because when you get hurt, the planet itself is also harmed…as we have seen with those quakes…the best you stay away from there the better."

"Alexstrasza, Garrosh stole plans to build a weapon called a coil gun from my brain," he began. "And then he fired the thing on me, four times, using elementium jacketed tungsten slugs, each would turn any Alliance steam dreadnaught into steel shavings instantly." Neltharion thumped his chest with a paw. "It didn't dent my chest scales. And the damned thing was supposed to be designed to kill me! All it did was shoot me out of the sky, made me even more pissed off and then I rammed my head through the gates of Orgrimmar at full galloping speed. I think I can handle going down to a continent. Besides, even when I attempted to rip it off, I may have weakened it. It shouldn't be much of a problem for me to go down there physically. And it only harmed me because I was using my powers to rip it off. It may not hurt me if I physically passed through the mist."

He moved closer to her, each of his thunderous footfalls quacking and cracking the ground. Neltharion bent down to stare at his sister eye to eye. His emerald green eyes flashing dull orange for a brief moment and black smoke rose from his nostrils.

"Now, whether I have your permission or not," he continued, each word dripping with his boiling fury. "I am going down there. And there is nothing that you or anyone else can do to stop me. So, take the advice of your advisor and don't stand in my way. That place has been bothering me for the last three months. Those things in its soil are a danger to anyone who might set foot on it. The Song itself is all wrong there and I need to find out why."

"Alexstrasza," began Kalecgos. "I am with Neltharion here."

Alexstrasza tore away from Neltharion to look upon Kalecgos.

"If he can tear down the barrier," Kalecgos began. "It means I can then come down and begin work on restoring whatever damage there is with the leylines." He turned to Neltharion. "Malygos sent me a message about what the barrier is doing to them."

"Queen Alexstrasza," began Itharius. "My green lady, Ysera also agrees with Neltharion's suggestion of going down to Pandaria. Ysera is concerned with the south. She says that in the Emerald Dream, Pandaria looks as it did prior to the Sundering, so she would want to know what has changed about it. Also, something even darker is afoot in Pandaria. Ysera says that when everyone dreams, they are connected to the Emerald Dream, but she has seen no Pandaren, or Jinyu, Hozen. Not even the Grummel appear there. But they used to, ten thousand years ago, they used to." The green dragon turned to the Earth-Warder. "Your discovery of this barrier, Lord Neltharion, has now given She of the Dreaming insight as to why no one from the lost land appears in the Emerald Dream while they are asleep. She, like all of us thought they all perished during the Sundering as well."

"It's why no one went looking for them," said Jaina. "You all thought all those lives died when the Well of Eternity was destroyed."

"Yes," said Alexstrasza. "I…had no idea that…they survived."

"Alexstrasza, as your charge as the Aspect of Life," began Neltharion. "Wouldn't you want to see what life has survived in that isolated land? How they live, what they do to survive? Wouldn't that be of some interest to you?"

"I am not saying it wouldn't be," she said. "And yes, I am more than interested in visiting Pandaria for myself as well. I just don't want _you_ going down there, Neltharion. It's for your protection! And especially not alone."

"You can't always protect me," he said.

"But I see that when I don't, look what happens to you. Whether you realize it or not, you are my brother and I love you dearly. I lost you before, Neltharion, and I will not lose you again!"

"Alex," Neltharion began. "What if Pandaria holds the key as to why you lost me ten thousand years ago. Maybe it holds answers about my past…memories stolen from me. Memories that even you probably never knew about. I feel a connection down there and I don't know why. I'm drawn to it. My visions, the people I've spoken to, new friends and old, everything is telling me to go south. Well, I am going south."

"Neltharion…"

"I need to go."

Alexstrasza sighed, dejected: "Chronormu, what does Nozdormu say about this?"

"The Time Lord is being quiet for the moment," the bronze dragon replied.

"Oh, what a shock…" said Neltharion.

"However, even he agrees Neltharion should explore Pandaria," she continued. "As well as the rest of us. We should not abandon this opportunity. If Neltharion wishes to go south, then let him. Nozdormu has all the confidence in the world that his little brother will take care of himself."

"And is the Time Lord still bitter about me trying to trap him in the Caverns of Time?" Neltharion asked.

"He says he only wishes to discuss that with you in person," she replied. "When the time comes for him to."

"Of course," he sighed, dejected.

"It seems I have been out voted," said Alexstrasza. "Very well, if the majority has faith in you, then you may go down there on your own."

"Again, like I really needed your permission to do that," said Neltharion. "Even if you said 'no', I still would have gone."

"He has a point there," said Chronormu.

Alexstrasza turned away, dejected now as well. Neltharion could very well sense her outright dismissal of the idea of him going alone to Pandaria. The Life Queen gave a half nod, agreeing that no matter what she would do to stop him, she knew that she could not.

"I still do not agree with this plan, Neltharion," she said. "And you must understand why. I don't want to lose you again."

Those words struck a hard chord inside of him, as Malygos had sad something quite similar as well. Neither wanted to lose him again after losing him the first time ten thousand years ago. Both wanted to hold onto him. Neltharion's mind was once more drawn back to what Malygos had said.

_We've all failed you. We all deserve what Deathwing did to us._

Malygos equated Deathwing's betrayal and his wars against the other flights as punishment for failing to stop Neltharion's fall. They failed in seeing the signs of the torment that led to Deathwing's creation. They failed Neltharion. He closed his eyes, folding upon himself in that thought as his heart sank to the pit of his stomach.

As the meeting finally came to a close, Alexstrasza moved over to Neltharion's side and touched his huge shoulder. At the same time, Go'el came also walking up to him. Both of them needed to speak to him. Neltharion's eyes passed between them and then he raised a paw up. With a thrust, he slammed his foot down and a small, rock creature who looked exactly like Neltharion in every detail suddenly leapt out of the floor.

"Okay, that way both can talk to me at the same time," he said.

"I love being needed," said the Neltharion golem.

Go'el nodded as Neltharion and Alexstrasza both disappeared through a ruby glow inside of the gate to the Ruby Sanctum. The Neltharion golem smiled softly.

"Has something happened during my three-month vacation?" he asked.

"Quite a few," said Go'el. "Outside of the drastic temperature changes around Kalimdor caused by the supervolcano…"

"Well, that's what happens when a volcano of that size and explosive force ejects enough sulfur dioxide to reflect sunlight," said the golem. "I bet your sunsets are really pretty though."

"You caused a wide-spreading famine," said Go'el.

"Garrosh blew up Theramore," said Neltharion. "Killed much of my flight as well. I think there now needs to be a rule. Don't piss off the dragon who can control the planet. If you don't want me to exact a lasting revenge that will lead to millions starving and frozen in an ice age, then maybe you should make sure Garrosh minds his manners. Innocent people are now going to pay for Garrosh's idiotic mistake. And maybe the next time someone decides to pick on something that is very much out of their league, they'll think back to Theramore and the resulting ice age and maybe that'll make them stop."

"How can you be so uncaring right now?" Go'el asked. "This isn't like you. The Neltharion I knew before Theramore was destroyed would be worried about this…but you are acting again more like Deathwing."

"Do not say that name, Thrall!" Neltharion said with a low growl. "Don't _ever_ say that name again…"

"Deathwing?" Go'el asked. "Why not? You are acting like him again. This is exactly what Deathwing would do and say."

"No!" said Neltharion as he drew himself closer to Go'el. "You know why I am acting as if I don't care about the lives that are right now starving because of that volcanic eruption. Because I'm beginning to see what happens when I do care. I care about things, I get slapped in the face. I care and want to be a part of people's lives, and I get hurt, my heart gets crushed. I cared about Calia. I loved her. I…even put her before my duties as the Earth-Warder, and she ripped my heart out and tap danced upon it with stiletto heels."

"I am sorry Calia left you," said Go'el.

"I tried to care about the mess I made at Ironforge," said Neltharion. "So, I went out and tried to do some sort of community service there, use my newfound healing abilities that I can do with the Light Water to see if I can take away some poor dwarf who's still barely alive from craping out her own insides. And you know what I got for caring? Again, ridicule, dwarves throwing rocks at me, and rotten vegetables."

"Rocks and vegetables won't hurt you," said Go'el.

"It's not the physical pain I pay attention to," said Neltharion. "I know I can't be hurt by physical pain. But it was the humiliation I felt. Their words hurt, their actions hurt. I asked them what I could do to make things right. They said: 'Get the fuck out, you stupid dragon!' So I did. I left. There's no point in me trying to fix anything that I do or that Deathwing does."

"But if you don't care enough, then that also could have a negative repercussion, Nel," said Go'el. "You'll come off as an unfeeling, uncaring monster who would step on the innocent just to do his job. Like Malygos."

Neltharion's mouth dropped. He leaned closer to the orc until they were nearly touching nose to nose. He poked a talon upon Go'el's chest, letting loose a deep, growl.

"Don't you ever say that about my brother," he said. "Do you hear me? Don't you ever say that about him. You don't know half of why he did what he did, so don't you pretend that you do. _Ever!"_

Go'el backed away from the rocky dragon golem, pulling his hood away from his face.

"Neltharion, I'm sorry…I…"

"No! Shut up!" he said. "Just shut up! You don't know the burden we Aspects have to take on just to do our jobs. What we have to sacrifice, what we have to do for the good of everyone. This planet isn't like Draenor. Draenor was a planet that could survive without ever needing any mechanisms to make sure it can house life. Azeroth is not that lucky. That is why we are here. And that is why we do what we have to. The Nexus War had a purpose. And if you could see that purpose, then you would understand. I also have a purpose. You orcs are used to living in harsh climates, my little decade long winter could be a cake walk to you. But it would have happened regardless to whether or not Garrosh decided to attack Theramore. Just like he said to me that he would have attacked Theramore regardless to whether or not I was there."

"But the famine…"

"Are there species going extinct right now?" Neltharion asked. "Are there?"

"No."

"Then what is the actual problem?" he asked. "Yes, a few people might die. But most of them will live. After all, I've seen some of the citizens in Orgrimmar. A good number of them could use less food. They're fat enough."

"The problem is that you may have turned potential allies into enemies, Neltharion," said Go'el. "There are still some who believe that you did what the Earth Mother told you to, you punished Garrosh for insulting her by using Molten Giants."

"Baine and his Tauren…"

"Yes," he said. "But those who do believe this are being attacked by Garrosh. Baine has ordered a few of his Tauren to go south to find a new home for themselves away from Garrosh. But there are still those who hate you for what you have done."

"They hate me for a lot of things," said Neltharion. "If it isn't the famine, it's something else."

"Nel…"

"Listen to me, Thrall," said Neltharion. "It doesn't matter if I cause a famine, or bury Orgrimmar under ten feet of snow, or if I save a bag of kittens from drowning in the river. I will always be seen as a monster. They cannot see anything else." He laid down upon the floor, wagging his head in dismay. "I can't do it anymore. I honestly can't. My heart is too weak, Thrall. I'm not strong enough to take it all anymore. I'm not. I'm not strong enough to care for everyone especially when they don't care for me. Or respect me. I am weak. Right now, my heart is only strong enough to…carry my flight. And even then it fails. Don't expect me to carry everyone else too."

"Neltharion…you can't just shut off like this…" he said. "This really isn't you. You…would do anything to gain the respect of the people after what Deathwing had done…"

"Maybe I had the wrong idea," said Neltharion. "Maybe I was too naive then. Well, thanks to Garrosh, thanks to Calia, I've wised up a bit. Besides, you would do the same. Anyone would do the same. I'm just like you. Just like everyone else. Tell me with a straight face right now that if you had to choose between your family and millions of lives, which one would you choose? And don't lie, I know your thoughts."

Go'el sighed, his back loosening. He could not bring himself to answer such a loaded question and Neltharion could sense it radiating from him. But already, the Earth-Warder knew the answer. The orc just wagged his head, averting his eyes from the golem who plucked at his innermost thoughts.

"That was cold of you to ask such a question."

"You know what is even colder? One of those people who died, who might have hurt my flight, were only doing it so they could protect their loved ones as well. Because they only saw their family as people they cared about, and that black dragon they killed as a threat to their family. So, here we go again. The same thing happens over and over with the other dragons. We are cannon fodder for them. We are trophies. Kill one of us and that warrior is named a hero. I save a town from a volcano, and I am ordered to leave with the entire town cursing my name. Remember that volcano, Thrall? The one all of us were saving that goblin town from? What did they do, did they thank me? No, they thanked you and they told me to get the fuck out. I should have let the ash cloud bury them!"

Go'el shook his head.

"I am not doing this anymore," said Neltharion. "I am not bending my back for any of those ungrateful peons that won't matter in the next 40 years. And I am certainly not breaking my back for them anymore either. The only people that I will do anything for are the people who have already won my respect. Because they deserve it more than the dirt farmer in Razor Hill that likes to tell people about the time he bashed some black whelp's head in and skinned the carcass for his new hat! They can starve for all I care. They can starve and freeze to death. And if they don't like it, well, they can move. They can find a new place to live. Hell, I'd be so bold as to perhaps suggest they go back through the Dark Portal from whence they came. They don't like how I run the planet, good, Azeroth doesn't want them!"

"You don't really mean that," said Go'el. "You can't possibly mean that. Do you want to tell me that I should go back through the Dark Portal too?"

"No," he replied. "Just that dirt farmer, and his friends. And Garrosh Hellscream. He wants to play mighty warlord, fine, he can do it back on his own planet. I'll be happy to kick him through the portal myself. But he is not going to do it here." Neltharion leaned towards Go'el one more time. "Garrosh will never be able to conquer the whole of Azeroth, because _I_ will _not let_ him."

"Neltharion," said Go'el as the golem turned his back to him. "Sometimes doing the right thing means getting ridiculed. Sometimes being the hero is thankless. But you do it because you know in your heart you are doing the right thing. That helping people regardless to whether or not they respect you or love and admire you is its own reward."

"This is coming from the orc who during his tenure as Warchief of the Horde let innocent humans and dwarves be experimented on in the Undercity by Sylvanas Windrunner," said Neltharion, tilting his head only slightly back to Go'el. "And then turned the other cheek. Tell me, were you doing the right thing then too?"

Go'el bowed his head, dejected by Neltharion's painful words. Neltharion's mouth twitched just slightly, knowing he had won the argument.

"Don't you ever judge me again," the golem rumbled coldly and sharply to the World Shaman.

"We all make mistakes…"

"That wasn't a mistake," said Neltharion. "That was your own vendetta against the Alliance clouding your own morals. You didn't care about those people Sylvanas had in her dungeon. No more than I care about all the Horde citizens who are starving because I took away summer for the next decade. The only difference is…my body count is higher. But it is still the same, regardless to how you look at it."

"What I just cannot understand is how you are letting Garrosh win with this attitude," said Go'el. "You are letting him win and you are accepting defeat. The Neltharion I know won't stand for people dying, any people dying regardless. The Neltharion I know killed his own sons to not only destroy a machine that could render this planet lifeless. He killed his own children, the Twilight Dragons…his son Ultraxion, to stop the Hour of Twilight. He ripped open his own chest to wound Ultraxion. He put everyone in the world before his own flight, before his own family. No one on this planet is as selfless the Neltharion I have gotten to know. He made me realized that I did the right thing by saving him that night when Deathwing attacked Wyrmrest two years ago. His actions made me realize that it would have been the biggest mistake to have him killed."

"And you know what else that Neltharion did?" the golem asked. "He reigned down radioactive material that made most of Ironforge sick and dying all because he went chasing after a women who…never really loved him. Never really respected him. Never really cared about him or his flight, or his duties. A woman who could never really understand why he had to put his duty before her or why he couldn't just attack the Undercity and kill Sylvanas so that he could win back Lordaeron for her. I loved her, Thrall. I loved her! I would do anything for her and she shat upon my love. And worst yet, she made me realize what a horrible thing I did…killing innocent lives just so I could save her."

"Neltharion, Calia had the Dragon Soul," said Go'el. "You had to get it back from her. We can't blame you for making that mistake of flying over Ironforge. It was an accident. The Dragon Soul is a dangerous weapon. It couldn't fall to the wrong hands. Regardless to how the dwarves feel about what happened, the reason was justified."

"No!" Neltharion bellowed. "You don't get it, do you? I didn't care about who had the Dragon Soul. I didn't care about that what's so ever. I cared about Calia. I didn't want her to become a slave of the Dragon Soul, and I didn't want Cho'Gall to kill her. I would have let Cho'Gall have the Dragon Soul if it meant that I could save Calia. I could have let the Old Gods and the Twilight Hammer have the most powerful weapon in the world if it meant Calia's safety. That's why the dwarves died in Ironforge. There was nothing noble about it. That's why Myzerian died, because I had to protect Calia. That's why Ultraxion died, because I had to protect Calia. You like to think all that I've done was selfless. Well it wasn't. I was willing to let everyone die so long as Calia was safe. I even threatened Varian Wrynn because of Calia."

If the golem had tear ducts, it would have been crying. His breath shuddered with a sob as he curled in upon himself.

"So, this is why you've been hiding yourself for three months on Azuremyst Isle," said Go'el. "Why you won't hear the cries of innocents dying. Why you haven't been helping the Earth-Ring lately with regulating the weather after the eruption."

"Everything I do, no matter if it is good or bad," he said. "It never turns out right. That's why I sent my flight to Deepholm. I couldn't bare seeing them suffer because of my…stupid mistakes. I have tried and I failed. I…don't want to care anymore. I want to be in a place where no one knows my name, no one knows the history tied to my name…both of my names. I think that's why I want to go to Pandaria. It's more than fighting those things that are plaguing it. It's a chance for me to start anew. No one knows my name there. No one's heard of Deathwing. Pandaria has been so isolated for the last ten thousand years, they never had the chance to be threatened by Deathwing. And they may know something of Neltharion the Earth-Warder, but whatever stories they had of him were probably good. If they still remember those stories. Even if they don't, it works out for me. I can go there and I can try again. I find out if I can heal a land on my own and not make the same mistakes I am making here. Most importantly, I can separate myself from…everyone who knows me. I don't have to worry about ever running into Calia, or worrying about being everyone else's way. Because that's what I am. I'm in the way. Eve when I try to stay away, I'm in the way. Maybe if I find out that I can heal that land on my own, I'll…feel better about myself. I'll feel more confident and I can return with a renewed spirit."

"You're not in the way, Nel," said Go'el.

"See, you're lying," he said. "Or as Velen put it, your hands aren't holding that water well, are they? I know I'm in the way, Thrall. Well, you don't have to worry, I won't be in your way now. I won't be in anyone's way. I'll be on some distant land…"

"Running away from your problems…" said Go'el.

"Only because I did try to face them. I did try."

"Maybe not hard enough."

Neltharion rumbled his frustration, bowing his head. The golem cracked from his crown to his feet and fell apart. The conversation was over.


	7. Chapter 6

**章六**

**Chapter ６**

Neltharion stood in the Ruby Sanctum, surrounded by trees displaying perpetual red autumn leaves. Alexstrasza tended to the eggs laid there. For the first time in two years, the Red Dragonflight had a new clutch of eggs. Neltharion's head lowered and his heart plummeted into his stomach. He desperately wished the Black Dragonflight could proudly say the same thing. However, he was at least overjoyed to see the three new whelplings Serinar had rescued while they were still in their shells. They were a small breath of hope to him.

He watched the Red Aspect breathe her fire upon the eggs, soothing them with her breath of life. Flowers grew up from the flames, blooming in rainbow hues and vines twisted and turns to strengthen the bed they laid upon. A red dragon's fire, it was devastating and deadly, but it left behind not burnt remains. It left behind blooming gardens.

Neltharion had to distract himself from the scene somehow. He laid his paw upon the emerald grass and concentrated. Before long, he was surrounded by a circle of violets. Neltharion enriched the soil's nutrients and sparked a blooming frenzy. One slight chemical change and just about every flower that had yet to bloom was doing so. Alexstrasza turned back to find her older brother sitting in the center of a rainbow ring of flowers. Neltharion laid down, folding one paw over the other in front.

"I forget you could…mimic my abilities…a little," said Alexstrasza.

"I think I can do it pretty well," said Neltharion. "Have you seen the Obsidian Dragonshrine lately?"

"Before or after the eruption?"

"Right, I suppose I should fix that…" he said with a small hint of cynical dryness. Though his heart was feeling the completely destroyed over his forgetfulness. He lowering his head, his dour brow frowned. "Sintharia shouldn't be lying in ash."

Alexstrasza slowly walked towards her brother. Neltharion got up and backed away from her, his heart now sinking even lower, his paws tingling with conflicting emotions.

"Look if you're just gonna gloat on how…stupid I was for ever…wanting to be with Calia…" he began. "Just don't. Okay. Don't. I don't think I can take it."

"I'm…not going to," she said.

"Good," he said as he laid back down again, folding his wings over his legs. "Because I get it, she was bad for me. So…I don't need you to harp on me over and over about why I am an idiot. I already know I'm an idiot."

Alexstrasza laid beside him. She leaned her head down upon his shoulder, rumbling very softly. She raised a ruby paw and began to comb her tentative talons through Neltharion's beard, slowly getting the tangles out. Neltharion could feel the heat of her body against his, he could feel and hear her slow heart. Though not one of those made him anymore comfortable. Confusion only served to trouble him more.

"Alex, what are you doing?"

"I've missed you, big brother," she whispered. "I just want to…be near you."

Neltharion turned his head away from her as the Red Dragon nuzzled her snout against his neck. The triangular, pointed scales upon his neck raised as he shivered from her breath.

"This…feels a bit…uncomfortable…" he said.

Neltharion's eyes darted from the nest of eggs under the vines and trees and then back to Alexstrasza softly drifting upon his neck and shoulder. His uneasiness could not be helped by her attempt at trying to sooth him with her deep thrum. His mind was tensed with questions as to why she was acting this way. And his mind was also partially occupied by Go'el in the Chamber of Aspects, as the orc argued with his golem. Neltharion took great stride into not allowing those apprehensive emotions leaking into his thoughts here. He kept staring at the eggs, desperately trying to keep his mind away from both the argument and Alexstrasza. But his thoughts were pulled each time she grazed a talon over the armored folds of his huge paws. He could feel her emotions, her loneliness, her sorrow, her grief. There was something special about this moment for her, but he could not tell what. Alexstrasza just wanted Neltharion there, beside her.

"Alex," he began as she lazily shifted against him. "There is something we need to talk about…"

"I know…" she said. "Neltharion…"

He interrupted her: "I had a vision of the Burning Legion returning."

Alexstrasza rose, her eyes widened, glowing brightly yellow upon this daunting news.

"Vision?" she asked.

"It was when I was in Karazhan," he said. "I wanted to know why Nalice was there, what she was looking for. The vision came on, spurred by nothing. I saw the world burning with fel fire. Infernals crashing from the sky. And a voice calling out to me. It said it would use my pelt as a cloak."

She turned away, leaning her back against her brother. He looked down and saw her eyes, distant, staring off into nothing.

"Alex?" he asked.

"You weren't the only one who saw a vision like that," she said. "I've seen it too. I knew it would be inevitable, but I always wondered when. Even Ysera has had similar visions."

"The Prophet Velen," said Neltharion. "When I was there with him, he reminded me that though Kil'Jaeden and many others from the Burning Legion had been defeated, they are not gone. They can still come back. They can still pull their resources and prepare. They know we are here. He also said that there could always be a possibility that the Hour of Twilight might happen."

"I thought we stopped it."

"I thought we stopped it too," he said. "But, the visions of those smoke monsters in Karazhan…that wasn't the only time I had them. I've had them over and over. Seeing a distant and unfamiliar shore, I saw those creatures. In my dreams, I saw them. Now I know what I was seeing. The distant shore is on Pandaria, and those creatures must be there."

Alexstrasza closed her eyes and nuzzled against him again.

"I wish to do things right for once," she whispered. "Maybe show…that I can be…deserving of your trust, Neltharion."

He did not know what to say to that statement.

"I know why you are angry at me," she said. "Because of that black dragon egg we had…the one stolen by the rogues in Ravenholt."

"Alright," he began, willing to go with this newfound openness Alexstrasza readily expressed. "Calia told me about an egg stolen from the Vermillion Redoubt, that was a black dragon egg. So, could you tell me why a bunch of red dragons would want with a black dragon egg?"

"You know, I wanted more than anything to find a way to bring you back," she replied. "And my dragons could feel it too. They knew I would kill if I could find a way to bring you back. But then Korialstrasz…was taken from me…and I gave up hope. I truly believed you were completely gone. But one of my dragons did not want to give up. Even if we could not save you, maybe we could…at least save your flight."

Neltharion's eyes shut tightly as his lip began to tremble, fighting back the abased pang building up deep inside of him.

"Her name was Rhaestrasza," she said. "She…was fascinated with your flight. I suppose it was because I pushed her. Because I long for the past to be as it was."

"Was?" Neltharion asked. "What happened to her?"

"You don't remember?"

Neltharion tilted his head slightly to her, his eyes leaving the eggs.

"Am I supposed to?" he asked.

He could sense the Life-Binder's grief, her heart twisting into a knot as a lump built into her throat. Neltharion felt her rest her head against his shoulder, a splash of cool wetness as she began to weep.

"Deathwing killed her," she replied. "You…can't remember him killing a red dragon in the Badlands?"

Neltharion's brow twisted and his eyes became crossed as he attempted to reach into his mind and pull out those memories. All he found was emptiness.

"No," he uttered a shamed and horrified whisper.

"He…burned her," she said. "With his lava. And her…child…an unhatched egg."

Neltharion bit his lip and a lump choked his breath. He swallowed hard. He shut his eyes tight, his paws curling. His biceps trembled under the scales, popping and bulging with every quake.

"It was a trick," she said. "Rhea fooled Deathwing into thinking he was killing the black dragon egg."

"So, she gave her life…and the life of her own child for one of mine?" Neltharion asked, his voice barely making a sound as he fought back the anguish gripping his throat.

He turned when he sensed Alexstrasza's tail softly curling around his own. She was mindful of the elementium blade bolted at the tip.

"She had to…" Alexstrasza said, once more combing her talons through his thick, silky, loosely wavy beard. She plucked at a lock of jet laced with the silver, admiring it. "She…knew she was expendable."

"Expendable?"

"No life should be expendable," said Alexstrasza. "But there was nothing she could do against…the might of Deathwing. The black dragon egg was safe, that's all that mattered to her."

"A sacrifice I am ashamed that I cannot remember," said Neltharion. "I was so buried far into Deathwing, suffocating…entwined…that all I could remember during the Cataclysm was his face. All I could see was his face. All I could hear was his voice, and feel his touch."

_You are mine, and no one else's, whelp…_

He shut his eyes as he recalled the hateful voice of Deathwing. The painful, agonizing, but intoxicating and rapturous touch of Deathwing's talons. And the shame that followed with each attentive caress as the demonic personality kept Neltharion's mind away from what was happening in the outside world.

_Your eyes on me. Your heart only beats for me. Your mind's thoughts are of me and nothing else. Neltharion…_

_Please, no more…please…no…_

Neltharion buried his head into his paws, at last his lip was lanced by a sharp fang. A trickle of glowing orange, thick ichor dripped from the prick. He swiftly held up a paw to his mouth, trying to stop the bleeding, to stop it from splashing upon the ground and setting the grass afire.

"Neltharion?" Alexstrasza asked as she saw the Earth-Warder turn away from her, holding his lip.

"Bit my lip," he said. "Just…keeping the…blood from…setting the ground on fire. Because…you know…my blood is a little…well…"

She lifted up off the ground and paced around him. Gently, she took hold of his paw and lowered it down to the ground.

"Let me, please?" she asked.

Alexstrasza raised up and placed both paws upon his shoulders, bracing her against him. She drew close to his lip and breathed softly and lightly. A tongue of her fire licked out to kiss the wound and it vanished instantly.

She pulled away and smiled: "All better."

"I…could have done that," said Neltharion, swallowing with uneasiness.

"I wanted to help," said Alexstrasza. "I wouldn't be much of a Life-Binder if I did not heal those who need it."

"Still…" he began. "What sort of monster am I that I cannot remember a life who sacrificed herself for one of my children. Why would she do it? What was so valuable about that egg?"

"It was the first black dragon egg not to be corrupted by the Old Gods," said Alexstrasza.

"An uncorrupted egg…" Neltharion held his breath as his eyes stared upon the nest of red dragon eggs. "During when Deathwing controlled my body. How can that be possible? The Song was…sour. It took my own awakening to even heal the ones directly related to me."

"Rhea was working with a mortal scientist," she replied. "Who discovered a device built by the Titans in the Badlands that could extract the corruption from the egg."

Neltharion rose to this feet, pulling himself from Alexstrasza. He turned away and started for the portal.

"Neltharion…" Alexstrasza said as she followed after him.

"You had a device that could cure my flight of its…sickness," he said. Neltharion felt sick. He doubled over. He stared upon his paws, slack-jawed and distraughtly dumfounded. "You had a device…"

"Yes, and no," she said.

"Which is it?" Neltharion asked, slowly turning back to his sister, his eyes blank as all feeling drained from his face.

"It worked on the egg but only after we gathered materials from other sources, dead black whelps, cracked shells, scales from the dragon that birthed it."

"All this time…why didn't you tell me? I could have used it to save my flight."

"Neltharion, we couldn't have known if it would work on you or the other dragons," Alexstrasza said. "None of us could predict if the device worked at all. We were betting on futility. And we got lucky."

"This isn't about whether or not it worked on me…" said Neltharion. "But my flight, why didn't you use it on my flight? All those dragons you killed that you could have saved. Were they expendable too?"

"There was no time for us to even chance it. The scientist thought perhaps maybe with a bit more time, more study, he could augment the device to work on full grown dragons. But as it is, it could only work on an unborn whelp. Even with the corruption being extracted, there was a very slim chance the whelp would have survive. Neltharion, with the study, we found that the corruption ran deeper than just ten thousand years, and deathly deep with fully grown dragons."

Neltharion snapped his head away, laying upon his belly. He dipped his head down and his paw gripped his braw.

"I'm sorry…" said Alexstrasza.

"You just stopped at one."

"It was all we could spare," she replied.

"No…now it's a matter of why didn't you tell me after I had been saved?" Neltharion asked. "You didn't have Deathwing then. You could have spared the time. But you didn't. You didn't even tell me."

"Don't think that I'm out to hurt you!" Alexstrasza said as she rounded in front of him. "I'm not out to hurt you. But you know, you didn't even give me a chance to say something about it. You were away, always away. You rarely visited. You spent more time with that…"

"I told you not to say it, Alex."

"Even if I don't say it, doesn't make it not true," she said. "Neltharion. All those time I would have told you, you never gave me a chance to. Don't blame this on me."

He curled up, laying upon his side, his wings spread limply as he stared upon a single blade of grass amongst a sea of it. Neltharion's frown widened and his lips tensed, pressing firmly together. His tail thumped the ground with agitation. A single fore-talon scraped along the grass and exposed the reddish brown dirt below.

"Neltharion," began Alexstrasza as she settled down in front of him. She reached out for his paw, but he snatched it away. Dejected, she cast her eyes upon the brown lines he dug with his talon. "Do you realize how lucky we were to even save you? How lucky I was? I never thought it could be possible. I never could have dreamed of it. I remember Grim Batol, the battle you and I had. I was so desperate to save you, I tried my damnedest to draw out what good in you was left. In the end, I could not. I was helpless. I was about to give up. Then Thrall showed me why I could not. It was the second time he did. The first was after Korialstrasz died. But I had given up. Apparently I was trying to save the wrong part. I was trying to save Deathwing, when it was you I was supposed to save. But I never knew. And when you said that all this time it was some…parasite that was inside your mind. Some evil personality under the commands of the Old Gods, I crumbled. This whole time, you were there, but I could not reach you. I could not find you. I didn't try hard enough."

Neltharion closed his eyes, folding in upon her words. His paws slid away from their idol tracing.

"All this time," she said. "You were there and I didn't try hard enough to find you. Neltharion, I love you. And I don't want to lose you, not again. None of us do. I just want to hold onto you, to what I have now, because it could very well have not been there. You believe you carry a great burden being the Earth-Warder. But I carry a large burden myself. I am the leader of all the flights, not just one. And I asked you to be my advisor, my right hand, because I knew you were strong enough to help me bear this burden. Because I cannot do so alone."

Neltharion rumbled a heavy sigh, his eyes slowly roving back towards Alexstrasza. The lower lids were puffy they filled with moister.

"And then when Deathwing took you," Alexstrasza continued. "When I thought that you betrayed us…the burden was upon my shoulders again. The weight of it all…and I knew I failed you somehow. I was not tentative. I did not catch on. And because of this, I am made to suffer. I didn't want to believe you were gone. It took Korialstrasz's death to make me see it. So I wanted to hurt Deathwing. I wanted to hurt you…because I made the mistake of thinking you were Deathwing."

He grimaced, his eyes drooping low.

"I hurt you," she said. "I hurt you because I thought it was you who hurt me. But I was wrong. And I realized that I had been hurting you for far longer than you ever hurt me." Alexstrasza raised a paw up to wipe away her tears. "So I promised it wouldn't happen again. I just want to have you here with me, so I can see you…to make sure that it won't happen again. Because I don't want to abandon you like I did before. And I wish I could take back all those years and do it all over again."

"Nozdormu won't let you," said Neltharion as he raised his head up. A slight smile curled his lips.

Alexstrasza smiled and reached out for him, nuzzling his broad, deep chest.

"I know," she said. "When I got you back, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure you stayed. I don't know what I would have done if I lost you again."

Neltharion sniffed, letting his own tears finally drop.

"Do you think the device could work now?" he asked.

"I don't know. I don't know if only could be used once, or if we could duplicate the technology…"

"You didn't try?"

"Please, it's not like I didn't want to. It's just…I didn't want to have my hopes dashed again. I do not know if I could have handled another chance ruined."

Neltharion rumbled as he felt Alexstrasza resting her head upon his neck again. She moved closer to his cheek and he could feel the cool moistness of her tongue as it lapped up the tears. He sighed and got up, letting her drop. Alexstrasza looked up and rumbled back at him.

"I should get to the Obsidian Dragonshrine," he said, his head hanging low. "You know to…repair the damage."

It was not what she expected from him. He was now so eerily calm and it disturbed her more than when he was showing every ounce of his fury. His expression mute, his mouth relaxed. Neltharion flipped a lock away from his shoulder.

"It'll help me think, at least," he said.

"Neltharion, I'm sorry, really…"

"It might take all night," Neltharion said, ignoring her apology. His anger, his frustration, his fury over her not telling him about the little black whelp still boiled hotly inside of him, but his face remained neutral. "I should gather up some volunteers from my flight to see if they wish to help."

He returned his eyes back to the portal.

"There's just one thing I need to ask," he began. "What happened to this black whelp?"

"We're not sure," she replied. "The last we saw of him, he was heading south."

"Well then, there's another reason why I need to head south," Neltharion leaned back to her. "Do you still wish to try and stop me?"

Alexstrasza was pensive, looking away from him: "No."

"You know, that water just keeps slippin' from your fingers…" he rumbled deeply. And then Neltharion stepped through the portal before Alexstrasza could ask him what he meant.

* * *

They worked long by the light of the setting moons. Dragonkin shoveled out tephra into mounds just outside the boarder of the Obsidian Dragonshrine. The dragons themselves moved the tephra through their power over earth. An oddly sight to see young black drakes pack down the gray powdery substance into a carpet where the much older dragons began to roll it up. Neltharion stood at the center in the volcanically heated shallow lake. A combination of water and earth, he sifted through to clean out the tephra from the spring. He took great care as he moved around his beloved Sintharia's body.

He stopped nearly, nearly a quarter finished, to look towards the sky. Just as Malygos said, the sun was about to peak over the eastern horizon, but only for a brief moment. It was not really night despite it looking like night, it was more or less in the middle of the day. As Northrend began to dive into the winter months, the hours were sunlight could be seen grew much shorter than in lower latitudes. However, the glow of the sun's rise bathed the sky in blood red. It was sulfur dioxide, caused not just the supervolcano eruption in Theramore, but also the few minor eruptions that had happened recently all across the planet. These volcanos became active at the same time all because Neltharion was knocked out by that barrier.

This blackout bothered him greatly. He could not remember anything that happened during the blackout, nor could his flight. It was as if something just turned him off, like a light switch. As he cleared away the debris, and worked hard to renew the plant life he had created from his tears two years ago, Neltharion was gathering information through his connection with the planet's beating, fiery heart. Each of the volcanoes erupting followed a path with the turning of the planet. Each one happening in rapid succession corresponding with each time zone, each time zone that saw the two moons at their zenith.

His mind began to whirl by automation as he gathered this information. It worked on its own, calculating each variable whether or not Neltharion truly understood why.

The volcanic eruptions, the earthquakes and the resulting tsunamis were all caused by the tidal pull from the two moons. Neltharion, nor his flight caused these events. He stared upon both the White Lady and the Blue Child.

The Tauren believed that the White Lady, called Mu'sha, was the left eye of the Earth Mother. The Night Elves believed that the White Lady was the embodiment of Elune. The Blue Child was Elune's child, as a few also believed. It is where many priests believed that they drew their power from. But to Neltharion, these moons meant something more.

Both moons were natural satellites, celestial bodies orbiting their parent planet, much like how Azeroth orbits its parent star. They helped to create a tidal pull upon the planet's liquid outer core which in tern generated the electromagnetic field both he and Malygos were created to maintain. The White Lady was nearly half the size of Azeroth, the Blue Child, only a quarter of Azeroth's size. Combined with their gravitational pull, all three celestial bodies battled each other. Azeroth's precariousness was its own doom and to prevent that doom, the Earth-Warder was needed.

Neltharion was created to keep those forces in check, making sure that all three bodies worked together as one. The pull of the two moons gave Azeroth an eccentric axil tilt of nearly 35 degrees, and both worked to maintain the tilt to help keep the seasons in balance. But take away anyone or release the delicate balance of the tidal forces, and Azeroth would teeter away from zero degrees to 90. Summers would become deathly hot, winters so cold that they would freeze the lungs of any living thing that breathed. No spring, no autumn. And not even Alexstrasza would be able to keep up to harden life against such extremes. Azeroth would be lifeless within a year. The only one who might stand a chance to live on such a chaotic surface would be Neltharion himself, but he would be alone on a dead world.

The Earth-Warder was a mechanism, his powers whether he was conscious to controlling them or not, maintained the delicate balance of the tidal forces between two celestial bodies who's combined mass would be close to their parent planet. He kept all three of them from ripping each other apart. Shut off that mechanism, and the tidal forces would begin their battle once more.

That was exactly what happened when Neltharion and his flight were blacked out. The very mechanism that even Deathwing could not figure out to shut off so that the Old Gods would win, unless he died, had been just that. Turned off for a very horrifyingly brief time. Neltharion did not cause these eruptions, quite the opposite. It was because he was shut down like how one would shut down a generator at a power plant, that was why the eruptions happened.

He could faintly see the evidence upon the full face of the White Lady. There was a hairline mark upon the surface, so fine, so small that not even the most gifted of elven visual acuity could see it. But Neltharion could. It was a crack, a reminder as to why he could not be shut down, not even for a moment. Even when he slept, the mechanism inside of Neltharion, the Heart of Azeroth in which he shared with the planet, the force that brought the destructive tidal pull to a standstill still was in place. So long as he lived, whether or not he was in direct control and helped the planet, this mechanism continued to function. Even when Deathwing during his terrifying ten thousand-year reign, the mechanism continued to function.

At last, Neltharion knew why the Old Gods wanted him dead. He could imagine the world in which he was not alive. It would have made the Burning Steps look like a lovely paradise. Clouds of sulfuric gases blocking out the sun, but trapping its heat. Pressure that generated heat so intense, it could melt lead. And the surface of the planet constantly molten, squished, and red hot. Mountains he built would be plains under the pressure. The tidal forces would be so turbulent that the electromagnetism would create its own deadly storms upon the surface. Nothing could survive, nothing except Neltharion. But he would have to be dead in order for this horrible world devoid of life to exist. The world the Old Gods wanted to create.

The Hour of Twilight.

And it almost happened again.

Velen was right.

A stranger from a distant world, an outcast and a fugitive among his people understood more of Neltharion's charge than any other being. Not even Neltharion himself.

Perhaps Velen would understand if Neltharion could tell him what happened. He took one moment to see whether or not Azuremyst Isle had been damaged by the blackout using his seismic sight. His heart leapt into his throat for a mere moment when he thought he saw a significant rise in sea level near its coastline. However, the _Exodar_ seemed fine. He could hear the voices of the Draenei making repairs to it. Perhaps an earthquake struck it and jostled a few of its wiring. He could even see Velen himself directing workers to the repairs.

Neltharion took a sigh of relief. He saw the plate boundary, one plate had dipped down further by a quarter of an inch, and then moved south by another quarter. The other plate headed north. A mud volcano belched, but again nothing too serious. Nothing catastrophic. Once more Azuremyst was saved by dumb luck of being on a peculiar geological formation. Even the trench was calm and quiet and the river of mud flowing smoothly to create its buffer against anything too violent.

The Black Dragon smiled and looked upon the still form of his beloved Sintharia.

"It's alright," he said to her. "Velen is safe. I'm glad. But I know now why the Old Gods singled us out. And it is far horrible than I could ever imagine."

He raised a paw and began to smooth down her scales. He softly petted her neck.

"Oh how I miss you, my love," he said. "How I need you more than ever."

Neltharion started back to his sifting, at last making the lake clean and clear. The sun began to peep over the ridge, casting a golden orange light upon the Obsidian Dragonshrine. The light of the sun was captured in the lovely jewels decorating Sintharia's horns. Neltharion tilted his head. She looked like a queen.

The shrine itself was clean again. The tiny carpet of ancient plant life glittered like sapphires in the glow of the sun. The mountain smoked above, but was relatively quiet. White smoke billowed out, turning baby blue in the sky.

"There," said Neltharion. "That's better, isn't it, Sintharia? You won't have to lie in the ash anymore. Now it looks beautiful again."

The active fumaroles spouted their gasses, the rock caked in yellow. Boiling pots of mud sputtered and splashed over a rise, and rocks streaked with orange and red jutted from the edge of the ridge. Once more, it was active. Neltharion jerked as he heard the sound of a geyser explode out with superheated scalding water. A black dragon poked his head out from the pool that filled the geyser. It was Serinar.

"Uh, sorry," he said. He got out of the pool, dragging behind him what looked to be what was left of a large sword. "I think someone either dropped this into the geyser, or he or she fell in themselves. I couldn't find the remains because well…hot water like that tends to melt bones. I think we need to put a sign out that says: 'Do not litter in the geyser'."

"Or attempt to dispose of their garbage in the volcano's persistent lava lake," said Ruthian as he landed right beside Serinar.

"Okay, what?" Neltharion asked.

"Well, a volcano works as a great incinerator," said Serinar. "Nothing wrong with that, Ruth. Just don't have the stupid adventurers litter around the gravesite. This where we bury our dead, you know. Show a little respect. And apparently some guy tried to bury his own dead here too."

"It isn't that they toss it into the volcano," said Ruthian. "It's the fact they don't sweep up the loose trash as well. Just no littering around the edge."

"Hmm, yes," said Serinar. "Maybe we post a sign up to inform any curious…stupid hikers who wanna climb a volcano that we are not liable for possible deaths if they fall in. Keep some of those idiots from suing us." He pitched his voice high and rather annoyingly whiny. "'Oh, Earth-Warder, my buddy was killed by your volcano. I aught to sue you for the damages!'" Then he pitched his voice low, trying his best to meet Neltharion's deep bass. "'Well then, you shouldn't have let your friend fall into the volcano. Or better yet, you shouldn't have trespassed on my property! I'm not liable if you or your buddy gets their asses killed for climbing an active volcano.' That sort of thing."

Neltharion chuckled.

"Then perhaps we should instead put a 'no trespassing' sign outside," said Ruthian.

"Hey, we could have one of those signs that read 'dragonspawn on duty, keep out'," said Serinar.

"Or I could just build taller, steeper ridges," said Neltharion. "But I didn't want to because that would have interfered with the air flow and kill off some of the vegetation."

"So, 'no trespassing' sign it is," said Serinar.

"I'm just glad that these trespassers didn't disturb Sintharia or Onyxia and Nefarian," said Neltharion.

"What about Ultraxion?" asked Serinar, pointing back at the blue and purple, gargantuan Twilight Dragon. "In fact, remind me again, why are we sharing our graveyard with the Twilight Dragons?"

"Because those Twilight Dragons were born from Sintharia's eggs," he said. "And myself. Regardless to what they look like, they are still my children."

"Does that mean you need to expand the space to include the Netherwings?"

"I…haven't thought about that," said Neltharion, dipping his head down.

"You know, I don't care about them," said Ruthian. "Because they want to have nothing to do with us. Despite the fact that many of the Netherwings are brothers and sisters of ours…"

"One of them being his actual son," said Serinar, motioning to Neltharion. "And naming himself very similar to his…"

"Neltharaku," said Ruthian. "But again, just like Sabellian, Neltharaku wants nothing to do with any of us."

"Man, no one wants anything to do with us," said Serinar. "Right, Gramps?"

Neltharion sighed: "Someone does."

"Who?"

"Velen."

"That crazy prophet alien?" Serinar asked.

"Because like us, he's an outcast too," said Neltharion.

"Well, that's nice of him," said Serinar.

"I think we are finished here," said the Earth-Warder. "I have seen the damage that our blackout has caused and I am more than insistent in finding out what it is that brought it on. It's in Pandaria. Whatever it was…I know it is somehow tied to the Old Gods. And I have to get down there…as swiftly as I can. But I need to find a way to go there from underneath the barrier."

"Good luck in that," said Ruthian. "There is no way around it."

"Underneath it, there is," said Serinar. "If you burrow your way straight through the crust, the mantle, and then the core…79 hundred miles from the north pole to the south. And it's a shorter distance than traveling over the sphere of the world itself. Unless that barrier is spherical."

"It is a mist," said Neltharion. "And it sits upon the ocean, upon the landmass itself. Now that I know where it is and I got a good look at its shape before the blackout happened, I think I will not mistake it when I am down there. Besides, going through the core, I can see the damage the blackout has truly done to the planet." A smile curled upon his lips. "I haven't done this in years…I am going to fly myself straight into the core and out."


End file.
